Differences
by Rlkite
Summary: Arizona wakes up one morning to find things with her aren't quite right... A/U based on Xmen. Will be mostly Arizona and Callie but I intend to have others involved as the story continues. First fic so I'm quite worried. I've only written one chapter but I intend to carry on with it.
1. Chapter 1

**It's been three years since my life changed. For the better? For the worse? One cannot say, however all I know is, my life will never be the same again…**

It all started on a typical Friday night, I'd just got home from the hospital, I was a paediatric fellow at John's Hopkins. I was so tired that once I sat down on the couch to watch a little bit of TV before bed I managed to fall asleep. However I awoke three hours later in excruciating pain. I couldn't feel, focus or do anything other than consider the white hot ripping sensation around my upper back and shoulders. It felt as if my upper torso was being ripped in half and I could do nothing but attempt to calm my breathing from the short shallow breaths that escaped my lips. After what seemed like an age the pain subsided and exhaustion took over me I slept until I was awoken by my alarm several hours later.

It was then that I noticed the wings protruding out of my shoulders.

The mirror on the wall of my living room showed a pair of two very distinct cream coloured feathered wings emanating from my significantly destroyed tank top. I looked to my sofa to find fluffy bits of crushed feathers all over it, some pinkish in colour suggesting that they are also blood stained. I remember being thankful that my sofa appears to be otherwise unscathed, however looking back on it I realise that that particular thought appears trivial now.

I slowly walked up to the mirror removing my tank top while turning around in an attempt to get a better view of the bizarre blemishes on my body. As I do so I unconsciously roll left shoulder which causes the feathered item to move. Unsure of what to do I roll my other shoulder, causing that wing in turn to move. I then decide to raise both arms to which the wings raise and stretch out with them. Shocked I immediately lower my arms, causing the wings to flap, the thrust of which sends me flying straight into the ceiling, I hit the ceiling head first then career down to the ground in a loud and painful thud.

"HOLY FUCK ARIZONA! What happened to you?" My housemate Teddy must've been woken up by the noise. I turn around to see her openly staring at me while still gripping the door handle that she obviously abandoned after noting my appearance.

"Arizona you have_ wings_! Actual _wings, _coming out of your _shoulders_?! Can you not _see_ them?!" She squawks at me in a tone somewhat higher pitched than I'd heard in a long time.

"Yes Teddy, _I know_, I was just trying to figure out if this is some kind of sick joke or how this could've happened. I fall asleep on the sofa one minute the next I'm waking up looking like some sort of weird chicken. Seems bizarre to me…"

As I said that the paper boy pushes my newspaper under the door. I've always liked reading newspapers in my spare time, I like to know what's going on and as a paediatric surgeon I often find that I don't have the time to catch the news so papers act as a substitute to me on the go. As the paper catches my eye I notice the front page headline "**GENETIC ABNOMALITIES CAUSED BY RANDOM MUTATION, INCIDENCES SPREAD" **Next to the headline was a picture of a young woman with what looked like yellow scales covering the entirety of her body. With shaking hands I pick the paper up to find that underneath the picture there were instructions for members of the public to act with "caution" when interacting with those "with such afflictions" as "one can never be sure if this mutation is also one of the mind". I pass the paper to Teddy who scoffs muttering something about "my best friend's not mad" and then grumbles about her ruined sleep. I however start to panic; I can feel the past half an hour crumbling down upon me causing a sickness in my stomach as my throat tightens in an attempt to ward off the onslaught of tears I fear might be looming.

"Teddy….. what am I going to do?"


	2. Chapter 2

**"Teddy... What am I going to do?"**

A slight shrug and a shake of her head is all I receive in return causing me to finally succumb to the tears and collapse to the floor in a heap of sobbing, eventually the crying is replaced with drowsiness and I fall asleep. I'm woken up about half an hour later by Teddy gently placing her hand on my shoulder and giving it a slight shake.

"Arizona…..Ariz-"I cautiously open an eye- "heeeey, how're you feeling?" The slightly too cheery tone and the way that she's fiddling with the imaginary bit of fluff on her leg as she crouches down next to me tells me something is wrong. "Like I should be in the middle of some sort of nightmare but I've yet to wake up." I reply eyeing her up suspiciously.

"Arizona, Callie just rang. She's on her way over….I told her about your erm. Situation."

_Well shit. The .Bed. _I slam the back of my head into the wall with an aggravating thud in an attempt to prevent the whiplash I appear to have received from the speed in which I turn to glare at Teddy. "You _told _her about this? You _told_ _CALLIE_ about _THIS_?! The same _Calliope_ whom happens to have only been on one singular date with me after I finally plucked up the courage after a year and a half of being" I raise my fingers to gesture "air quotes"… "Only friends… "Teddy I really really _really_ like her, what if this messes stuff up?"

"Arizona; honey, as surprising as it might be to you I have watched the two of you since you met her. I've seen the way she seems to go doe eyed for you; even while you eat an entire box of krispy kremes before her very eyes. Without so much as offering us one, by the way." She sticks her tongue out at me before continuing softly. "I'll admit it was a shock when I saw you this morning, however once you get used to it you actually kinda suit it." She smiles slightly. "Plus, do you really think this will bother Callie? She's the one girl I've seen since I met you who seems to be good for you regardless of how long you've been dating."

"Teddy, I have _WINGS_! Wings Teddy, sprouting out of my shoulders. How would you react to that news?"

"Probably in a similar way that I did, but it's alright, I'm here for you… She will be too"

The door knocking and muffled "Arizona?" Told us that Callie had arrived.

"I'll go get it" Teddy got up after patting my shoulder while I contemplated trying to find the battered tank top that I had discarded or whether I should remain in my bra. Apparently my self consciousness took over because I managed to cover myself with the wings while I crossed my arms. Embarrassment about the whole situation overtook me as I realised I must've spent a three hours slumped in the living room in just a pink bra and some sweatpants, Teddy must've gotten an eyeful.

I hear muffled whispers coming in my direction a sharp gasp and then padded footsteps followed by the clack of shoes on our laminate flooring. The door swings open to reveal Teddy and a slightly pale, albeit beautiful Latina. "Hi" she awkwardly waves before looking anywhere other than at me. "Hey Callie…" I trail off not knowing what to say. Neither of us realise the fact that Teddy has left the room long ago to allow us to speak alone. Finally she looks at me, obviously taken aback. "This is quite something isn't it?" She says chuckling. "Would you mind if I sat down?" I shake my head and she lowers herself to sit down next to me. "Do you mind if I touch them?" I turn to look at her my eyes go wide, I hadn't thought about that. _Why hadn't I thought of that?_ "Erm I,I…. I"

"I don't have to, it's ok. They just look really soft that's all" I realise that I'm still staring at her with my mouth agape. "No… No, it's fine. I was just taken aback is all, I don't really know how to move them properly though and I don't want you to get hurt." I start to blush and she slowly reaches out to brush her right hand down my right shoulder and eventually down the humerus then radius of the wing protruding from it. It was a bizarre sensation that was actually surprisingly pleasant the action causing small twitches to run along the end of the wing causing me to stretch my metacarpus out opening the primary feathers out slightly. Callie jumps back which only makes the heat in my cheeks more excruciating.

"So, do you think, maybe you could stand up and we'll try finding something for you to wear? Teddy told me to bring something big so I went out and bought you a hoodie to wear, is that ok? Its baby blue, I think it'd suit you" She holds a bag up that I hadn't realised she'd brought with her up and gestures for me to stand up with her. Gingerly I take her hand and she leads me to my bedroom scooping up the discarded tank top on her way, she pulls a face and it's flung into the nearest bin.

"Here, is there any chance you could maybe…fold them so I could put this over the top?" She asks uncertain of the logistics of it all. With as much concentration as I could muster I eventually manage to, rather clumsily move the extra limbs in a manner in which a belt could be clasped around them to hold them together. Callie hands me the hoodie which I put over myself. "Do I look like a freak?" I turn to look at Callie, tears in the corners of my eyes as I wonder what she must be thinking. "Callie?" I turn around to see her openly looking me up and down. "Calliope"

"Huh, what?"

"I asked if I look like a freak." I say, although this question appeared to be directed at the ground. "No…I, I erm." She clears her throat. I look up to her; she's looking at me with an expression I can't quite determine. "Arizona, you look beautiful." She takes my hand in hers and pulls me to her so that she can wrap her arms around me and give me a hug. "Nothing will change that, including this." She looked at me intently before leaning in and kissing me once on the lips. Although the kiss was only chaste it still had quite a large effect on me, making my heart leap until she pulled away, smiling slightly moderately red cheeked.

That's when she promptly vanished on the spot.

"Shit….."


	3. Chapter 3

"Callie? Callie are you still there?" I hear shuffling coming closer to me then heavy breathing. "Ar-Ari-Arizona, ARIZONA I CAN'T SEE MYSELF!" I can hear her moving about but my eyes aren't able to find any indication as to where in the room she is, there isn't even a shadow below her feet. "Yeah, I can't see you either. Which is a shame; because I happen to think you're worth seeing… if you catch my drift." I send a wink in what I hope is her direction I hear chuckling to the right of me and correct my gaze. "I'm not too sure McBirdy, what is there to catch?" I can tell by her tone that she seems less panicked than before however her voice is still quite shaky. Then I hear the sound of feet padding towards me (she had taken her shoes off during the journey between the living room and the bedroom) suddenly I'm pulled into a hug by her. I realise that from the outside looking in I must look like I belong in a mental asylum embracing thin air but I can smell the distinct smell of Callie, her perfume mixed with the raspberry shampoo she used. I'd recently asked her about it as I'd caught myself sniffing her as we'd hugged or been close before, I loved the smell of Callie. It somehow managed to make me feel better when I'd lost a patient and didn't have the time to wolf down a doughnut.

I'm brought out of my thoughts when I feel dampness on my shoulder accompanied by the distinctive soft sniff of someone trying to hide their tears. "Calliope, its ok" I only get more sniffing in return. "Hey, hey now, it's ok. Isn't it? Neither of us is hurt are we?" I feel the head on my shoulder move to shake, indicating a "No" answer. "Shhhh, it's alright. We just need to figure all this out don't we?" The head on my shoulder moves again, this time nodding in agreement. "Okay then, how about we sit on the bed and see what happens?" More nodding. I shuffle us backwards and lay what I assume is both of us on the bed; however Callie's legs may or may not have been sticking out over it. I was unsure. I realised then that sleeping on my back would be, from now on, damn near impossible, with the scapula on both sides of my body painfully digging into the bed at weird angles. This caused me to lean onto one side and Callie to shift even closer, essentially causing me to become the big spoon in this rather weird sandwich. After ten minutes or so Callie's breathing started to even out a bit and the crying stopped.

Just as suddenly as she had vanished, she suddenly reappeared. It was then that I realised how close to my breast her head was and that the stroking of her hair had actually caused Callie to fall asleep while lying on me. She looked so perfect with her face relaxed and calm; it was almost as if the morning hadn't happened and she just happens to have fallen asleep. I take a moment to just study her, taking in the portrait that was her face. After a few seconds I could see that her eyes were starting to move under her eyelids, she was quite obviously having a dream. This would be normal if it wasn't for the fact that while she was dreaming she kept disappearing only to reappear just as swiftly, I hold her tighter in an attempt to stop the constant shifting.

Until a load thud emanates from the living room followed by a yelp and a "fuck me that hurt!" I could then hear Teddy obviously hopping about after stubbing her toe on something. However the commotion wakes Callie up with a start and she flicks back and forth through light and dark until finally becoming fully visible in front of me. "Hmmmph, Arizona did I fall asleep?" She looks at me with those deep brown eyes causing me to nod in return. "You shoulda said something, woken me up or something, I was the one who was supposed to be looking after yo- oooh…" Her breathing hitched as she obviously remembered her own little incident earlier. "Arizona…. I can see myself. Can you see me?" She asks cautiously, while lifting her arm up to stare at it before putting it down again over my hip. "I can see you, although before while you were sleeping you kept flitting between." She nuzzles back into me before letting go of a rather long yawn. "I'm really comfy" she states. "Me too Calliope, me too."

"Mother fucker!" Another loud thud is heard as it appears Teddy has lost the ability to walk with any sort of skill. "I'll go see to her" I say, she makes some sort of grunt of disapproval before tightening her arm around my waste slightly, then slackening it and mumbling "okay". I re-enter the living room to find Teddy trying to pick up bits of feathers that have managed to find themselves on a high shelf of our bookcase, she's on her tiptoes and from the pile of books that seem to have been knocked to the floor it appears she's still not quite tall enough to get the final few evading capture. "Teddy, are you alright?"

"Yeah yeah, I'm fine. Just y'know... Freaking out a bit." She turns to me on trembling legs. "I mean you're m' best friend Arizona and you have _freaking wings_ and an- and Callie's here helping but Arizona I don't know what I can do?" She looks at me wide eyes. "Arizona this is so messed up." I pull her into a tight hug trying to calm her down.

"I know it is and Teddy, there's nothing you _can_ do. All you can do is continue being my friend, if you want. Just do me a favour?"

"What's that?"

"Tell me these wings don't make my ass look fat?" She slaps me round the shoulder while chuckling. "Shut up Ari I'm being serious, I've been watching the news and this is just the beginning, you're not the only one that's _different_ there's others."

"I know, Callie's different too" her eyes shoot wide and her jaw goes slightly slack.

"It's true" Callie says from within the room; however neither of us can see her. "The thing is I don't know how to control it." If Teddy's eyes had bulged any further she would be in serious danger of being mistaken for E.T. "Callie? What the fuck!?" She jumped suddenly as, what I can only imagine; Callie attempts to rub her shoulder. "Yeaaaah… So it turns out now apparently I can go invisible, I'm just not too sure how to turn back" One of the books on the floor starts to float apparently of its own accord. "Do these have a particular order or am I just putting them back on the shelf?" Teddy just looks at the book with an expression akin to a goldfish. "Just on the shelf is fine Calliope" I inform her trying my best not to laugh at Teddy as she stares at the feathers that are now being removed from the highest point on the shelving unit. "I, I-I- urgh, I couldn't quite reach them." She finally utters out. Soft chuckling is heard before "I'd gathered" is mumbled out.

"Let's just sit down, put the news on and try and figure this out?" I suggest. "I'm supposed to be back at the hospital tomorrow, I doubt I can now." We all shift to go on the sofa, the indent in the seat indicating Callie had sat down. "You guys, what if I never learn to control this?" Obviously we had a lot to talk about.


	4. Chapter 4

A few hours later saw me alone in my apartment; Callie had left to walk the short distance home with the suggestion that she return the next morning. I had suggested that she should stay over however she then blushed furiously and disappeared yet again, only reappearing after I then asked if she would like to return in the morning. This gave me the impression that it was Callie's emotions that caused the constant disappearing act that had been going on the majority of the day.

Teddy on the other hand had left to do the grocery shopping as it was obvious that I would attract more attention than it was worth. This left me with quite a bit of time on my hands, time that I would be using productively if I wasn't trying to figure out a way to make my shirts wearable in my current situation. Currently the only feasible answer would be to cut holes in the back of all of my shirts and therefore potentially ruining every item of clothing I possessed. This depressed me significantly so I decided to leave the apartment and go to the roof of the building (which I was given a key for as it lead to a fire escape). _If I'm going to have these stupid things I WILL learn how to use them. _I muse as I attempt to stretch the articles out in a somewhat coordinated manner.

Which I obviously fail miserably at as the appendages shiver and shake until finally stretching out whole the primary and secondary feathers spreading out dramatically. I imagined that for a relatively small woman I must now seem like I take up far much more space than originally intended. I consider, for a moment attempting to use the wings for the purpose they were intended. This thought was fleeting as the number of potentially bad consequences inundated me should anything go wrong. _If I'm going to do that I wouldn't want to do that on my own. _However when I lower the extra limbs, yet again the thrust causes me to raise into the air I start to fall to the ground at an alarming rate….

Until I'm suddenly being apparently held about four foot from the ground, the smell of Callie's perfume hits my nostrils. "What're you doing McBirdy? You could've hurt yourself" Although I couldn't see her she sounded concerned. "Calliope! I thought you'd gone home, what're you doing here?" I would be lying if I didn't admit that the idea of being with Callie again didn't make my heartbeat race slightly. "I didn't want to go home, but I couldn't face going back to you and then _this _happening again… so I came up here and just sort of sat, tried to think it out y'know?" I sort of vaguely nodded looking where I assumed her face would be. "Calliope, how long have you been here, watching me?" At this question she reappears, it becomes obvious that she is furiously blushing. "Errrm, I've urgh been, er watching you si-si-since you got up here." This statement, it seems was aimed at the ground. "Oh, is that so?" It was my turn to go crimson, "so you saw… urgh, that? You saw that?" I gestured flapping with my arms, which only caused the wings to spread and flap again and us both to jump slightly. "Yeah, Arizona I did."

"Oh, Calliope would you help me?"

"How?" She looks at me quizzically.

"I don't really know, I just want to know how to control my movements." I realise that I'm still being held up by her and wonder whether I should bring it to her attention, however I don't really want her to put me down. "Plus, you _are _the ortho resident… surely that means _something_." She blushes again and starts to flicker slightly however it seems that she's gaining far more control over her _"differences"_ than I am. "Urgh" she clears her throat "urgh, I could umm try to help, you with y'know…" She trails off while glancing at the joint on my left shoulder. "I could try some exercises that might help you? I seem to be able to stay "normal" if I try to clear my mind." _That makes sense; I must have an effect on her then._ I muse happily. "Calliope?"

"Yeah?" I lean my head up to kiss her firmly on the lips; she reciprocates, fighting to dominate. After a short while there's a parting of lips and my tongue is allowed access, our tongues duelling in a pleasurable battle neither of us would win. Moaning in approval I eventually pull back when the need for air dominates me. "Calliope I think you should either stay overnight, or leave now because if we don't stop doing this then I'm afraid I will not want to stop."

"Mmmhmmm" She looks at me like one would look at their pray.

"Calliope, are you even listening to me…" My sentence is somewhat cut off by her lips crashing into me again in what became an encore of the kiss before. Our breathing deepened and my chest rose and fell dramatically as a certain throbbing in my pants decided to make itself known to me. "You're so so so _hot_ Arizona" She breathed into my ear as she gradually kissed down my jaw and to my pulse point. By now she had begun flickering wildly from the visible to the unknown as clearly her mind was unable to hold onto a constant sense of calm during it all, as surprising as it may seem it somehow added to my arousal. "You're not so bad looking yourself Calliope" My hands where in her hair, along the way I'd lost any sense of holding back in an attempt at decency. Callie was hot and I wanted her. Now. When she started nipping at my collarbone I pulled her up and captured her lips in a searing kiss, my right hand attempting to lift her top in an attempt to gain access to her breast.

I'd managed to lightly caress her right boob when there was a loud CLANG behind me. "Arizona I wondered where you'd gotten t." The "o" was clearly forgotten as Teddy noticed the scene in front of her. "Or you know I could just go back downstairs and leave you guys to it? Yeah… I think I'll do that" She turns to go back downstairs until Callie, who is by now completely beetroot and flickering wildly shouts "NO, no Teddy, you stay. I think it's probably for the best that I go home now; however would you mind terribly if you gave us a second?" She receives a nod in reply and Teddy gestures that she'd be waiting in the stairwell before she turns to leave. Leaving Callie and I alone again in her wake.

Obviously flushed Callie turned to me; a light smile softens her features as she appears to drink in my appearance. "Arizona I really like you, like _really _like you. It's because of that that I think it's best that I do leave tonight, although that isn't really what I _want_ to do." She pauses while looking at me, I nod encouragingly. "I really don't want to mess this up by being too ready to do this." She gestures between our flushed bodies. "Because when it happens, I want it to be special. Not some quickie on the roof of your building." She looks at me seriously for a second, almost waiting for an answer. "I couldn't agree more Calliope; I don't want to mess this up either." I smile at her before pulling her in for one more kiss.

"Oh, for God's sake, you two are _disgusting_! Would you get a _room _already!" I turn around to pull tongues as the irritated blonde that appears to have been too nosey for her own good before chastely pecking Callie on the lips. "I best be off" she breathes out, her eyes never leaving mine. "Goodnight Arizona."

"Night Calliope."

And with that she was gone. For the night.


	5. Chapter 5

The next few days progressed quite quickly; I would spend the majority of my days in relatively unpopulated areas of the city, such as unpopular parks and attempt to learn how to use the wings properly. Callie would join me whenever she could to try to assure that I'd be safe. However, I had been calling in sick for the better part of a week and it was getting to the point where I would start to fall behind my peers. I had been using the hoodie that Callie had bought for me the first day after my discovery along with some specially modified tee shirts (I had chosen my least favourite tee's for this in the hope that this was all just a terrible dream and I could go back to wearing them). It was during my walk from my apartment to the park that I had chosen to meet with Callie that I notice the headline of the papers being sold on a nearby stand. **"Mutants to be taken to institutions, keep our citizens safe." **There were then instructions for people to imprison "mutants" and to take them to the nearest hospital where they would then be transported to "facilities" that would perform investigations on them in an attempt to remove their "differences". _I really need to go find Callie. _I hurry along quickly, avoiding catching the eye of anyone in my passing. Calliope is in my sight when my cell phone starts ringing.

"Hello?"

"_Arizona, hi it's Dr Kendal"_ My Attending's voice rings through the phone. I catch Callie's eye and she starts walking towards me. "Oh, hi sir. How may I help?" Callie catches up to me and smiles at me. "_Arizona, I'm going to ask you a question and I want you to answer me truthfully." _His voice has a stern tone to it that I had rarely heard before.

"What's the question sir?" I look up to Callie, mildly panicked. She seems to notice and starts to rub circles on my back. "_Arizona, imagine you are in my position for a moment. One of the most talented young surgeons you have seen for a long time has been off sick for an uncharacteristically long time. I then hear from said surgeons peer, a cardiothoracic surgeon Dr Hahn that she has seen this surgeon late at night in one of the parks south of the city with WINGS attached to herself attempting to fly… rather unsuccessfully I hasten to add. And that Dr Hahn has in fact got this on tape._" The colour drains from my face while a sharp intake of breath causes Callie to stop her movements and duck in an attempt to catch my gaze. "_Arizona, is this true?" _The wide eyed gaze I'm giving Callie obviously concerns her more as she takes my free hand and gives it a tight squeeze. "Ye-ye-ye-yes sir, yes it is" I eventually manage to squeak out. "_Oh, I'm supposed to take you in and organise the transport of you to an asylum in Seattle. HOWEVER, Arizona I wasn't lying when I said that you are the most talented young surgeon I've seen in a while. I'm going to give you some advice, Arizona you need to leave Baltimore. And you need to do that NOW!"_

"Than-.." The phone cuts off before I can finish thanking him for the forewarning. I turn to Calliope, before my mind can catch up to my eyes I start crying collapsing onto Callie's shoulder "Calliope, the hospital knows, they _know _Calliope. That was my attending, he gave me the advice to leave _Baltimore,_ he told me to leave my _home_." 

She looks down at me silently for a short while before it becomes obvious that she's about to start crying. As the first of her tears fall she disappears although the grip that she has on me tightens. "I'm not leaving you, not to this" I hear her breath out.

"Calliope, you have a life here. I can't let you leave it for me." We both start shaking as Callie appears to cry harder. "You can hide this Calliope, I can't."

"NO! No Arizona, I don't want to hide this if I can't see you." At this declaration she reappears briefly seeming to glow slightly, it is painfully obvious that her "gifts" are affected by her state of mind. "Arizona how long have we known each other?" She looks at me with an intensity that only she has ever been able to give. "A year and a half" I reply in half a beat. "Ok and how long do you think it has been that I have been in love with you?" My eyes widen in shock "Ummm, I don't know Calliope." I clear my throat as her eyes study my face for any signs of fear. "Is it as long as I have been in love with you?" I ask with a grin so large I could feel my dimples popping. Her deep brown eyes widen before she grins at me, showing me that dazzling smile I just can't get enough of. She captures my lips in a quick kiss before stating "now then, I am simply not leaving you." She grabs my hand before pulling me in the direction of my apartment. "We need to get out of here Arizona; if someone knows about you then they'll come after you eventually." She hurries us along, dodging other pedestrians along our path. Until we get to my apartment and a very flustered looking Teddy.

"Oh thank god you're back. Arizona the police have been looking for you, they want to take you to Seattle." Teddy throws herself on me and pulls me into a hug before I can say anything. "I told them I didn't know who they were talking about, I think they bought it but I'm worried." She's obviously been crying as she has red rims around her eyes. "Arizona, you're my best friend, I can't tell them where you are but I think you need to leave Baltimore." She gestures behind her; she's clearly been packing before we had arrived. "I've packed my clothing, before you object I'm coming with you." I open my mouth to form an opposing argument but she wards me off with a raised hand. "Don't you dare Arizona, don't you dare start with a speech about how you were raised to protect the people you love and are named after a battleship making you a good man in a storm!" I gawped at her while she took the words out of my mouth. "I have known you for long enough Arizona, you're my oldest and best friend, and I refuse to let you leave me behind in all of this!" I feel my eyes fill with tears as I nod at her then pull her into a hug. "No matter what kind of witch hunt this seems to be turning into you know you're still exactly the same person you were before this right?" I avert my gaze to the ground while she says this, more tears welling in my eyes. I hadn't said anything to either of them since this happened but obviously Teddy had picked up on it, I no longer felt myself. I felt as if the first thing people would notice me for from now on would be the large cream coloured wings that appeared to adorn my shoulders. That people would be unable to see past that and see who I really was, that was a fear that had increased exponentially as the days wore on and the reality of the situation seemed to set in. I felt as ostracised from society as the day, at age twelve I realised liked girls.

"Right Arizona?" She pulled me from my musings. "You and Callie are _exactly _the same people as before, you just have that added _extra." _She emphasised the statement with a smile. "Anyways I've rung both your parents and my own parents and they said that they'd put us up for a while." She has the decency of looking wary at this statement; I've known Teddy since I was a child. We were both military brats it just so happened that her father was posted with my father, wherever her family went mine was sure to follow. We grew up together and were only separated during Teddy's, albeit short, time in the army medical corps. However I had the (mis)fortune of having an overbearing mother and a particularly strict father. This news was not going to go down well. "Plus Arizona, and I _quote _they would _love _to meet the woman that you've been "_courting"_ The shit eating grin and the air quotes that Teddy was currently sporting was enough to provoke me to throw the nearest pillow at her face. "I hate you" I grumble at her.

"No, you love me… and you're going to get yourself packed, then Callie is and the three of us are going on a road trip." She drags me by the hand into my bedroom and within the next three hours I have my life packed up, many boxes in storage (thanks to a 24 hour company) while the essentials are packed into Teddy's car which we use to drive to Callie's apartment.

"You two lovebirds go pack up her stuff; I'll wait here for you." She says while rifling through her CD collection in an attempt to find something worthwhile. "You know, this wasn't exactly the first scenario I thought up when I envisioned inviting you up to my room." Callie opened the door, holding it open for me. "After you m'lady"

"I know I feel like we should be going on coffee dates and stealing glances from across the table. Not hitchhiking across America from Baltimore to New England."

"Oh where would the fun in that be?" She catches my wrist as she walks past me, obviously aiming for the direction of her bed room.

"Want to fool around a bit before the child of thunder decides it's time for us to hear her 18th rendition of the Spice girl's debut album of the day?" She adds a cheeky wink to the already sexy look on her face.

"Babe, I thought you'd never ask"

**A/N, hi guys :) I'm not too certain about this chapter, could you please tell me if you think there are any problems with it? Cheers Rlkite xx**


	6. Chapter 6

The drive from Baltimore to Vermont where my parents lived was long and tedious. It had also involved several renditions of seventies and eighties power ballads by Teddy, including a light peppering of fist pumping to accentuate the lyrics. Until, thankfully the dirty blonde had fallen asleep snoring softly onto the window sill. I don't think I've ever been so thankful at hearing somebody snort in their sleep. I was pretty sure Callie was happy about it too, she'd been driving for the past hour to give Teddy some much (obviously) needed rest in the backseat while I sat in the front giving directions. My mind travelled back to earlier in the day when I'd been helping Callie pack, things had been light between us until, all of a sudden she stood bolt upright and looked white as a sheet.

_"Calliope what's wrong?" I looked at her quizzically as she continued to pale before my very eyes. She glances at me wide eyed while still some very lacy pairs of pants… I would __**very much**__ like to see on, and then __**off her. **__"Arizona, you said your father is a Marine?"_

_"Well, he retired last year but… yes he was a Marine. Why?" We'd already had a conversation about what our parents did for a living, I knew that her father was high up in the hotel industry and her mother was a lawyer. We didn't often speak about our parents because I knew that since her coming out to them two years prior things had been quite "tight" between them._

_"And your mother is a Principle at an elementary school?"_

_"Yeah she is, why?" I wondered why Callie now looked like she was going to pass out… or vomit. Until, of course, she disappeared again leaving behind only the pairs of pants she'd been holding aloft after folding them. "What if your parent's don't like me?" I heard the whisper, but I wanted to talk to her so I asked her to repeat it. "What if your parent's don't like me?" She said it again with slightly more gusto. "Why wouldn't they Calliope?" I'd learnt that if I looked vaguely around the room it made her feel less self-conscious about what was happening and she was more likely to become visible again._

_"'Cos what if they think __**I **__am the reason __**this happened to you?**__!" She reappeared suddenly clearly angry with herself. "Why would they think that?" I say softly trying to get her to see that the possibility of that being impossible. "B-Because this all happened just after we went on that date" She sniffs quite loudly scuffing the ground with her foot. "What if this was exacerbated because of me?" She looks at me with more vulnerability I'd ever seen. "What if us getting together caused the mutations to present themselves within us? Arizona what if something happens and it's all my fault?" I hold up a hand to stop her before she says anything else. "My parents will __**love**__ you, and do you know why that is Calliope?" She vigorously shakes her head. "Because you care Calliope, you care like crazy and I will always love that about you. And so will they, trust me." I lean up standing on my tip toes to kiss her, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear I lean my forehead to hers, closing my eyes. "Please Callie; it'll be alright you'll see." She nods finally, before herself leaning in to kiss me soundly. "Come on let's finish getting you packed?" I take her by the hand tugging gently. _

Callie hadn't spoken about my parent's since then but it was obvious that she was still quite hesitant about meeting my family. If I had any choice in the matter I would've put off this meeting for as long as possible, however hurricane Teddy had other plans. "Callie are you alright about this? If you didn't want to do this no one would blame you." She swerved slightly in the road before correcting herself and sharply looking at me before returning her gaze to the road. "I am not leaving you alone in this; I'll just have to suck it up." She says sharply. "I'm here for you, that means that I'll be right by your side until this calms down." She says with a voice laden with empathy as she reaches out with her left hand to squeeze my knee. "We're almost there Arizona, you're gunna have to give me directions to your parents' house."

The rest of the journey was filled with the giving of directions and Teddy's soft snores, until she eventually woke herself up with a snort blinking in confusion for a while until finally looking up to assess where we were. Finally, after what felt like an age of driving my parent's estate came into view. A slightly clammy hand landed on my knee again and Callie turned to me as we came to a stop outside the red front door that my dad had originally hated, until my mum had, of course, found a way to get him around to liking it. "Calliope, they will love you, you make me happy they will see that." I take her hand and kiss her knuckles, just as Teddy throws the back door open with reckless abandon, hurls herself out the car and dives towards the front door. All while making dry heaving noises and uttering something about the fact we were making her want to vomit. "You ready to meet my parents?" Callie seemed to freeze so I shoved her towards the door with a vice like grip in an attempt to prevent her from running away.

We reach the red door, which was already open after Teddy was ushered inside. As I was about to cross the threshold into the hallway of my parent's house my father appears in front of me. "Hello bug, it's nice to see you. What's this I hear about some _changes _you've gone through and why is it that it takes something like that for you to decide to come and visit?" My father was never abusive but he was always stern, there was always an expectation on how I should behave. It is obvious that my lack of appearances recently hasn't gone down well. "And, I have to hear from _Theodora_ that you're currently dating someone, is this mysterious _Callie _going to show herself or shall I be dragging her out of the car?" He looks where Callie should be, having vanished due to nerves the second my father came to light however the shaking palm still firmly within my grasp tells me she hasn't gone far. "Dad I have something, well… someone to show you. We just have to calm her down…."A gulp is heard by Callie before my father looks at me incredulously.

"Is this _Callie_ hiding, or is _Theodora _telling lies again, I was told she'd grown out of that, clearly I was wrong." A muffled noise of protest was heard from the kitchen, Teddy was already tucking into one of the many sugary snacks my parents kept around in the off chance either of us came to visit. "I'm not telling lies Colonel, she'll reappear in time."

I eventually drag Callie, along with all of our possessions midway through the walk she reappeared, the look on my father's face provided some comic relief when a Latino woman appeared before him, after a brief introduction where both participants appeared bright red I was again left alone with her with the promise of a swift return to introduce my mother. "Did Teddy tell your dad about the wings?" I stop the unpacking I was about to complete to stare at her. "I don't know…. He said that she'd told him about some changes, he wasn't acting as if anything was wrong nor was he looking at me in an attempt to try to assess what was wrong which he would've done if he thought I was physically different."

"Who's physically different sweet pea?" I hadn't heard my father coming towards the open doorframe he was now leaning on. "Dad, I've got something I have to show you. But I don't want you to freak out, okay?" He looks at me with mild confusion before finally nodding. I take a deep breath looking at Callie for some support; she gives me a slight nod before squeezing my hand slightly. I reach over my shoulder to unclasp the belt that helps me to hold the upper joints in the correct position at rest, I've still yet to gain the appropriate coordination to complete the task myself, once the belt is undone I take off the hoodie that hides the clumsy limbs from view spreading them out to full view so my father can see what I have become.

The crashing sound of my father's mug of coffee hitting the ground is all I hear before I see his retreating form turn to leave before descending down the stairs.


	7. Chapter 7

**This chapters quite rude so you know... prewarning there (Y)**

The next few days had been somewhat strained, my mother fainting upon first seeing what had happened to me, then spending the rest of her time asking me if I needed anything and attempting to glance at the wings when she assumed I wasn't looking. My father on the other hand demanded an explanation as to how this could've happened to me and why it is now that it has manifested itself, he then refused to allow Callie to stay in the house until my mother reasoned with him and this was then changed to a refusal at letting her stay anywhere near my room. This resulted in her sharing the spare room with Teddy, top and tailing the double bed. I have never seen Teddy so pissed off about a situation before, apparently Callie hogs the bed. _I wouldn't mind her hogging __**my**__ bed. _

My parents had also found the time to seemingly interrogate Callie about her intentions with "their daughter" their levels of intimidation was apparently impressive as for the majority of their interactions with her after that she disappeared from sight. However this eventually died off and things between the three of them became somewhat warmer.

We finally had some time to ourselves, what with my parents going to town to do some shopping and Teddy deciding now was the best time to travel the few miles to her parents' house with the promise of a return. "Why isn't she staying with them?" Callie asked innocently. "Did she not tell you, the last time she turned up at her parents' house she ended up having an argument with her mum that resulted in a pan being thrown at her head. It's for the best she stays here, save her parents' the hassle. Plus, my mum just _loves _her." I roll my eyes. "Besides, she was the only person there for me during high school. She's my best friend you know?" Callie nods while reaching out to take my hand her thumb gently grazing my knuckles. "It appears we have the _whole _house to ourselves. What should we do Arizona?" Her voice has become gravelly while her eyes glance down my form.

"I don't know, what should we do?" I wink at her before pulling her into a kiss. The kiss was soft initially but quickly heated up her hands finding my hair while my own looped around her neck. Our heads too'd and fro'd as each attempted to control the kiss while with a swipe of a tongue on lips I granted Callie's tongue access to my mouth her tongue grazing my own. We break apart due to the need for air, our eyes meet and I could see the look of slight apprehension that flashes across her features. "Calliope what's wrong?" The look resurfaces and she takes an observable gulp of air before stating that she was worried we might be moving too fast, I ask her why she thought that while trying to steady my breathing. "Arizona I want you, all the time I want you, you drive me crazy, especially with those wings you're hot. But I don't want you to feel that I'm taking advantage of you in your family's home or feel we're moving too hastily. As I said before I'm willing to wait."

"Hush, Callie I want this okay? This is perfect." I smile at her waiting for her to respond in kind. Once she does I reconnect our lips as we partake in a slow sensuous kiss. This once again deepens and I find myself moaning into her mouth her hands stoking down my back in a way that causes my knees to buckle.

I don't realise that I am moving backwards until I make contact with the kitchen counter, Callie lifts me up and I find myself perched upon it with her kissing along my jawline. I hastily throw her top over her head only to crash our lips together once more in a bruising kiss. My hands glide to her chest palming a generous amount of flesh through her bra as her hands make their way to my waste as she caresses my navel. "Call- Calliope, we need to move this to the bedroom." I manage to breathe out, painfully aware that we would be creating an interesting scene for Barry, my parents' nosey neighbour to see through his window. Sure enough when I looked up through the window the definite twitch of the curtain suggested that Barry would be enthralled at the scene. "Hmmmph, too horny" she panted while nipping at my ear. "Callie, come on… I want to take you to bed."

Flinging myself off the counter I remove my top, abandoning it with a throw I start to remove my jeans, then my bra and finally my pants in a path that lead, finally to the door of my bedroom. I turn in my nakedness to find a hot and bothered Latina in hot pursuit. She greedily takes in my form before whispering the words "you're so hot Arizona" before vanishing into thin air. Not three seconds later and I find myself being pushed to the bed, I may be unable to see her but I can feel her as she kisses and nips and sucks behind my ears, down my neck and finally reaches my décolletage, slight red marks being left in her wake show her presence on my body. She reaches my left breast with ease swirling her tongue around the peak of my nipple as she gently sucks on it, her left hand playing with my right nipple. She swaps over to suckle on my right boob, as she does so she flickers back to visibility obviously recovering from the shock of seeing me so bare before.

"Calliope you're still wearing pants. I want to take them off." She grunts in recognition before removing the offending item herself sticking her tongue out at me then winking cheekily. "I can do things my self you know McBirdy." Her eyes go wide as she realises that this may have a double meaning, before she blushes saying "but y'know, I'd rather you helped me with errrhm this… I'd prefer not to do that myself." _Holy shit she's adorable. _

"Callie, just kiss me" She gets back to the task at hand and soon I'm grinding my centre against her larger form as she lies on top of me. My whimpers of need must reach her ears as the hand that was caressing my abdomen decides to make their way down to play in blonde curls before Callie looks at me, almost in question. I give her a quick nod and a smile before kissing her again feeling a finger duck down to stroke through my folds. Suddenly I'm entered by two fingers with a thumb lightly stroking my clit I moan loudly into her mouth before sucking on her bottom lip and releasing it with a "pop". She thrusts into me a few times slowly attempting to create a rhythm until finally one is reached and we are moving in tandem. My hips grind down upon her hand attempting to allow as much of her into me as possible while a long shapely caramel coloured leg is used to aid her hand in its endeavour. It doesn't take long for the warm sensation to rise between my legs and twitches it occur along my body. "I need a little more Calliope" I manage to utter out between breaths. She looks up and our eyes meet as a third finger is added to the fray. She pumps hard into me with a sexy grin and I find myself tipping over the edge as I clamp down on her fingers and my limbs start to spasm wildly legs and arms' twitching as the breath is knocked out of me. In my uncontrolled state I am unaware of the flapping occurring with my feathered attachments until a sneeze occurs after feathers land around the bed causing Callie to sneeze.

After a recuperation I am able to roll over, the stars somewhat subsided. Callie pulls out of me causing me to grunt, she brings her fingers to her mouth sucking each one clean before pulling me in for a kiss. I can taste myself on her lips and by the grinding she's attempting to achieve on my leg I can tell it's driving her wild. "Let me return the favour…" I kiss along her jaw to the centre of her breasts lightly flicking a nipple while my other hand reaches down to her centre, past dark curls. I swirl my index finger around her clit causing her to jump slightly with a loud moan. Before I continue to kiss my way down her body until I am hit with her heady aroma. "Can you part your legs for me?" She responds immediately parting her thighs allowing me room to move. Licking the entire length of her slit a few times I feel her hips roll forward in an attempt to gain more friction where she needs it the most. Taking her laboured breathing as a sign I take her clit into my mouth and lightly suck, this causes her to buck quite wildly closer to my face. "Shit, Arizona…. Ahhh fuck." She curses as I add my tongue lightly drawing patterns on her engorged gland. Load moaning erupts from the Latina as she's clearly in the throngs of ecstasy. I feel a sticky substance make its presence known on my chin and I notice that Callie is literally dripping wet. This pushes me to decide to enter her with two fingers slowly thrusting in and out to her, curling my fingers on the out stimulating that spongy spot on the wall of her vagina. "I'm so close Arizona, so so soooo close." Her right hand finds my head and with fingers grasped in my hair she pushes my head even closer to her roughly. It is as I start to hum around her clitoris that she reaches her release in a long guttural moan. "Oh god oh god oh god oh GOD ARIZONA!" The hand in my hair clenches painfully as her upper torso rises up off the bed, crashing down when the orgasm subsides.

Strong hands eventually drag me up her naked body until I am lying on top of her, her arms clinging to my back holding me as tightly as possible. "That was-."

"Yeah, yeah it was" She chuckles at my unfinished sentence. She nuzzles her nose into my own before stating "I'm glad we waited until now, I feel this is more romantic than the roof of your apartment building." Laughing I agree before snuggling my face into the crook of her neck. The afterglow we're both feeling being impeccable in its self. "I wish times like these could stretch on forever." I say feeling sentimental however, it's obvious that Callie doesn't feel the same as she rolls her eyes and tells me to stop being to soppy.

We're so wrapped up in each other that we don't hear the front door being opened. Or, in fact the gentle knocking on my bedroom door. In fact it's only when my mother walks in on the two of us very naked and in the midst of a post coital make out session that I notice my mother. "Arizona your father and I were wondering if… OH GOD!" She clamps a hand over her eyes while I manage to move my wings to shield us both from my mothers' scarred eyes, meanwhile Callie yet again disappears from sight.

"You know what; it doesn't matter… dinners almost ready, come down soon okay?" With that a red faced Robbins scampers out the room.


	8. Chapter 8

After scrambling around to find some clothes we descend the stairs and enter the kitchen to find my mother red faced and my father coldly staring at Callie. "There's a reason you're sleeping in separate rooms you know" He boomed at Callie, causing her to visibly shake. "You abused my trust Calliope when you decided it was alright to have sex with _my daughter _in _my house_, do you understand me?!" He bellowed in our direction.

"Daddy no…" I'd long since descended into tears. "_Daddy_, this is my fault not Calliope's, but come on Dad, I'm 25… she's 24. You _know _I have had sex." His gaze is locked on me, his jaw set. "You will _not _be having sex in my house again do you understand me?" I start to nod in understanding until my mother speaks up. "Enough Daniel, they're adults. Your daughter is a grown woman, capable of making her own decisions." She turns to me "next time, can you _not _leave a trail of clothes. I felt like I was following the yellow brick road." She smiles slightly at me while my father continues to glare. Finally with his nose flared he utters out "fine… but I don't need to know!" Callie goes to grab my hand. "Now, dinners on the table you need to eat." We ate in silence until we got up to leave. "I don't want any funny business up there you know." My mum gave me a wink whispering something about her daughter being a "stud."

I've never seen Callie run out of a room so quickly; it was as if the ground beneath her was on fire. I was dragged out the room so quickly I thought my arm would dislocate, before we reached my room and Callie sat on the bed putting her head in her hands. "I thought your father was going to eat me alive then." Shaking my head I come to sit behind her my arms wrapping themselves around her waist I place a kiss on the nape of her neck my wings enclosing us protectively. "I promise you I would never let my father do anything to hurt you. He just still sees me as his little girl, you know?" She nods her head and leans into my embrace. "Arizona, do you think you have better co-ordination with these things?" She strokes her arm down the primary feathers of my left wingtip. "Mmhhhm, why?"

"Well, it's still light outside. Do you want to try flying tonight?" I gasped in shock; I hadn't tried to fly since driving across from Baltimore in fear of being spotted. "Hey, it's okay if you don't fancy it. I just thought it might give you a break from your parents?" I look at her with wide eyes as she strokes a hand down my cheek. "Would you come with me to see if I can do it?" She nods before adding.

"And I'll catch you should you fall." I give her a quick peck before releasing her and taking her hand. I lead us down the stairs, out the house; with only one snarky remark about not having sex outdoors by my father; and onto the path that lead a little way to a secluded spot in the woods. Callie pulls me towards her when she realises quite how nervous I am. "You're gunna do awesome babe, don't worry. You've just got to relax and do this." She removes the hoodie and belt that impede my flight muscles with an added kiss to my neck. "Just do what you're gifted with." I nod my head with somewhat new found confidence, however a little bit of self-doubt lingers on.

I find myself walking away from her to provide some distance as in the very likely occurrence that I career to the ground I wouldn't want to collide with her. _Okay, I can do this… I mean how hard can it be, right?_ I stretch out my wings the primary and secondary feathers impressively spreading out at my sides. With a final glance at Callie who is, as ever, giving me an encouraging smile. I push down using the pectorals attached to my shoulder, the thrust causing me to fly into the air impressively. I had however not thought about what I would do once I had managed to get myself in the air, I flapped wildly, heading rapidly back to Earth. However eventually I managed to spread my wings enough for their purpose to be established, spreading both humerus out caused air to be trapped by the primary and secondary coverts, leading to up thrust and an ability to glide. I found myself travelling quite far and could see Callie attempting to keep up with me on the ground. I found that my changing the angle the wings had to each other would cause me to turn, I turned around and attempted to land in the same area I had started off at.

This didn't go quite so smoothly and I found myself crashing heavily into a large oak tree knocking myself unconscious. I wake up moments later with a panicking Calliope cradling my head in her arms. "Oh thank fuck, I thought the worst. Are you ok?" I go to nod but she won't let me. "Hey, hey stay still ok."

"I think this is just a ploy of yours to take advantage of me" I manage to croak out, she leans down to kiss me on the head before easily lifting me to pick me up. "We're going home." She says flatly, "enough flying for you." She starts walking towards the direction of the house, abandoning my hoodie on the grass inside the clearly. "Calliope… what if somebody sees me?"

"Nobody will see you, your parent's neighbours are all over 70 and its past nine… babe, you're hurt I got this ok?"

"O-okay." I allow her to carry me the short(ish) distance home, it was nice being in her arms and let's face facts the woman smells divine. Little did we know however that someone had been watching us….


	9. Chapter 9

The rest of the night went pretty smoothly, apart from my mother flapping around me once she got wind of my fall. After about an hour or so I was no longer dizzy, however the rather large bruise on my head was in dire need of being iced. Callie managed to lift me to my room when she noted that I was drifting off, refusing my protests that I could walk there myself. "Do you want me to stay with you tonight, I don't mind hiding from your father?"

"Could you maybe, hold me 'till I sleep?" I look up at her hopefully.

"Yeah alright, only because I like you" she winks at me and we snuggle under the covers soon drifting to the land of nod.

The next few days carried on without much interruption. I spent most afternoons learning how to fly, Callie would come along also as she said she would want to be there to try to catch me should I fall. At first I found that landing was the hardest part and I would often come crashing to the ground. However gradually, and with much encouragement I found that I was able to slow myself enough to land with both feet. I don't think I'd seen Callie look at me with such pride before. I was quite happy to have the ability to move with more coordination, it felt nice to be able to stretch my wings.

It was late one Friday that the small amount of calm we'd achieved was ripped down around us. There was a knocking on the door that Teddy went to answer it, my parents having left the house for an evening at an Italian restaurant. Callie and I were sat in the kitchen, she was doing the washing up I had my arms around her waist and my chin resting on her shoulder. "I love you Calliope" I state in a moment of contentment.

"You too, you…too"

"YOU'LL BE DAMMENED BEFORE I LET YOU IN THIS HOUSE!" We twist around to see Teddy attempting to prevent a group of men from entering the house. "I have reason to believe that you are hiding a mutant, we have instructions to immediately detain her, and she will remain in custody for the foreseeable future where her "differences" will be assessed by our government." Teddy currently had her arms outstretched however she was easily tackled by one of the men and thrown to the ground with a loud crash. Callie put herself between the guards and me. "Move out the way madam, we have the authority to use whatever force we deem necessary, we will be taking her. This creature needs to be controlled." Callie goes towards him, before another of the men pulls a gun on her. "Calliope NO!" I move to pull her backwards, away from the men before I felt an impact on my side and man's hands on my body. "Come on _mutant_, I've got just the right place for _you_." He drags me towards the door while Callie manages to free herself. She runs for me and grabs my hand "Arizona, Arizona… no no, take me don't take her TAKE ME!"

"I cannot do that madam, who knows how dangerous these mutants are." I'm roughly thrown away from her. "I love you Arizona…I always have."

"I love you t-….." I don't get to finish my sentence before I feel a sharp force on my head and I'm plunged into blackness.

I would later find that Barry had seen me on that first night and subsequently watched us from his window next door before finally calling the police. I awoke alone in an unknown sterile room; it was completely white with lighting coming from the ceiling. The only exit was an electric door to the right of me. I was strapped to what appeared to be an operating table, naked from the waist up with my wings outstretched and tied. I had never felt more scared in my life. Even from the night that I woke up with the two appendages that got me into this mess. _Callie, Callie please please come find me. _

**Meanwhile…**

It had been 6 hours since Arizona had been taken to the facility. Immediately after those oafs took her Teddy and I had attempted to follow them, we got as far as a town 50 miles north of the Robbins' household before missing a side street that their car had gone down. After driving around for three hours we decided our best bet was probably spending the night in a motel and searching for their car again in the morning.

Teddy brought me to a local bar in an attempt to get my mind off thing, we had been drinking for a while before a handsome man with a greying beard and a body that showed off the fact he works out came up behind us. "And what are two lovely ladies like you doing in a town like this?" He drawls out, eyes raking down my body before doing the same to Teddy. It's then that his eyes seem to bulge out his head. " Theodora….? Oh my God, it's been years!"

"Marcus?!" Teddy blinks at the tall man. "Marcus Sloane is that _you_? I've not seen you since high school."

"In the flesh." He envelops Teddy in a bone crushing hug before turning to me. "And who is this mysterious stranger? AND MORE IMPORTANTLY, where's Blondie?" When our faces drop at this question he asks us what's wrong. "What's your opinion on mutants?" Teddy asks seriously. "Why?"

"Because I can only tell you what happened to Arizona after I know your opinion."

"Well between you and me, I _am_ one." He states, chest puffing up proudly. We look on agog before I find my voice. "You are one? What makes you say that?" I eye him suspiciously.

"This…" He looks at me directly in the eye before I feel a light brushing on my thighs; I look down to find the hem of my skirt rising up. "I can move things with my mind."

"I can turn invisible." I blurt out before I could stop myself. "Teddy can't do anything." Teddy punches me in the arm. "Hey, I get that I'm the odd one out." She looks between the Mark and me before deciding to inform Mark on what happened. "… We followed them here but lost them, we don't know where she's been taken." Mark nodded throughout this. "You said they were taking her to be assessed?" We nodded. "There's a government compound on the outskirts of town, they have a laboratory there… I've seen them take others there the past few weeks. We need to hurry though; I don't doubt that they would have no qualms in killing her." I start to tear up at this shaking my head. It appears that Mark noticed this as he turns to look at me "you and Blondie then?" He smiles. "You'd be good for her, she can be stubborn but I've a feeling you can get her to come round. Don't worry Callie, we'll find her, we just need a plan."

The rest of the night was spent with us moving from the, rather empty bar, to the motel room that Teddy and I were staying in. It turns out that Mark was the owner of the bar that we had visited and the motel was owned by his friend Derek. "Yeah it's quite a small town." He had said nonchalantly. "Most people know each other, but it's not creepy, 'cept the twisted sisters." He said chuckling. "Alright ladies, I'm going to leave you to sleep I need you to be rested if we're going to get Blondie out of there."

He strode out the door. "There's no chance you're going to sleep is there?" Teddy asked me.

"Not a hope in hell"

"Yeah, I thought so…."

"You?"

"Will I fuck." She switched the tv on before we both stared through it and collected our thoughts.

**a/n thanks for the reviewer who told me I'd uploaded the wrong chapter and put the last one up again...**

**my only excuse is I'm dyslexic and VERY tired.**

**It's poor I know**


	10. Chapter 10

**Arizona's POV.**

I don't know how long I've been here; I think it must be a good few hours having fallen asleep and woken up not too long ago. I've tried to break out of the restraints holding me to this table but I can't seem to break the bonds trapping me. I can hear muffled noises coming towards me but nothing seems to be clear.

The noises come closer and I try once again to break away from the table until the door to the room is flung open and a large mean looking man tears into the room followed by a smallish man in a lab coat. "Good morning Dr Robbins, how're we this morning?" He looks at me; I just silently glare at him. "Okay…Well Dr Robbins today you shall be undergoing an operation to take a biopsy on your lymph nodes to investigate what hormones cause this growth. Then we shall be experimenting with your wings, I'm sure you wouldn't mind us finding out how much force is needed to break the radius within your wings do you?"

I go to say something but suddenly feel a sharp jab in my side. Things start to go hazy… "I thought not. Such a lovely talk Dr Robbins." He sneers at me before things once again fade to darkness.

**In a downtown hotel room.**

"Okay so if I pretend I've got a lead on another mutant while you and Callie sneak into the facility?" Teddy asked Mark while I eyed her suspiciously.

"And HOW do you expect we could do that?" I ask incredulously.

"Callie, you turn _invisible_, how could you _not_?" All eyes are on me as I self-consciously plucked at some lint on my trousers. "Who would you use as a mutant?" We all sat there considering our options until Mark jumped up. "No, no we won't do that. Teddy, you were in the army?" She nods. "Alright then, _I'll _go to them saying that _Teddy _is the mutant, and then we'll take down the guard, right Teddy?"

The morning goes on like this until we're standing in front of the facility Teddy with her wrists tied together, mark "roughly" holding her by the neck and coloured in an orangey/ brown tinge. I flicker for a few seconds before completely vanishing at Marks side. "Know what you're doing Torres?" He whispers as we see a guard heading towards us. "Yeah I think I've got the idea." The guard comes to a stop in front of us before asking us what our business was. Upon learning that Teddy is a mutant he seems pretty chipper explaining that we should follow him into the facility. He opens one of the side doors, ushering us in.

And is hit in the face with a large fire extinguisher that had been attached to the outer wall.

The smug look on Marks face is all I need to tell me that was his doing. "Okay Marcus, You and I are going to find anyone we can save. You Callie are going to find Arizona. Stay invisible okay?"

**Arizona.**

The first think I remember is the pain, the undeniable pain I had bursting from my shoulders, down my back and down my wings. I couldn't recall another time in my life that I had been in so much pain. I felt the pain before I'd even attempted to open my eyes.

When my eyes finally do open all I can see is white light, the blurring around me refuses to become focussed. I am back in the room I was in before, I go to sit up but realise once again I'm in the same constraints. _God, please let Calliope be alright, please tell me they haven't found her. _The door opens and the man in the lab coat returns. He has a snide grin plastered on his face, I can tell he's about to tell me his next step in his plan. He opens his mouth to speak-however before he can do so he appears to have an impact to his face and is knocked out cold.

Callie appears in front of me shaking off her right fist. "Arizona are you alright?" She rushes over to me concerned. I try to speak but can't, my throats too dry which causes me to cough. Instead I nod once again trying to remove the restraints while Callie pulls at them. She notices the tears I hadn't realised I was shedding. "No, _no _oh babe what have they done to you?" She cradles my head stroking my hair quietly. "I need to get you out of these things." She goes to pull on the ties across my chest and shoulders, this causes a sharp pain to overcome me and I cry out. "Shhhh, babe it's ok. I'm so _sorry." _She kisses my forehead. "I need to break these chains…. They've attached them to your wings so that you wouldn't be able to fly. You're going to have to have surgery." At this I start crying.

"I'm sorry Calliope, I'm sorry I'm such a _freak _that some government nut job policy wants to disrupt our lives." She shakes her head before leaning in to give me a chaste kiss.

"This is going to hurt." She roughly pulls at the clasp that attached the devices together snapping it; she then found another weak point in the chains snapping them to allow me to move. "Good thing I brought these pliers with me isn't it." She says smugly. I get up to move, only to release a sharp hiss of pain as a new wave of agony comes over me. "Oh my god, this _bastards!_" I turn to Callie in confusion at her outburst, as I do I move my left wing unconsciously, realising that there is an acute pain coming from it. I look to it and realise that not only is there a chain coming out of it (this is obviously what was used to tie me up so effectively) but there seems to be a metal structure pinning the areas in which my bones would be in place. "Arizona, I think you need an X-ray STAT." I nod at her, doe eyed.

"Callie, I'm scared." She pulls me up from the table using her body as my support.

"I know honey, but right now. Let's get you out of here." We run out the room into a fairly mundane looking corridor. We then turn into another one to find Teddy and a greying male attempting to support another man in a similar way in which Callie is holding me. This man seems to have a gift that causes him to have large spines protruding out of his body, he seems younger than the rest of us, he comes across as gruff obviously awkward about the need for help. I take a second look at the older looking man to find that he's… Markus Sloane. _God, I haven't seen Mark in years_ I admit to myself, glad for the friendly face.

We manage to get to what seems to be an exit before five guards with guns come between us and the door. _Shit. _"Stay right where you are!"

"Not a hope in hell." Mark shouts roughly. A chair that was sitting in the corridor seemingly has a mind of its own flinging itself at the two guards to the right of the group before falling in a noisy clang to the floor. The two men hit the deck out cold before anyone else could react. They start firing at us, however once the bullets come close they stop as if a force-field is placed around us. "HOLY SHIT I HAVE A POWER, GUYS GUYS… I WISHED FOR IT AND IT HAPPENED!" Teddy all but screamed at us.

"Great, now I lost my hearing too." The random guy grumbled. The bullets that had been shot at us hit the deck as Teddy turns to glare at the stranger. He glances at her before vigorously moving his right arm; a spine shoots out of his palm and hits one of the guards. He swiftly moves on to the other two guards and shortly all five are on the ground.

"Come on, we need to hide. They'll be out looking for the two of you once they realise you've escaped." Mark scratches his chin in thought. "I know the place."


	11. Chapter 11

We had been driving for a good twenty minutes, it appears wherever it was that we were heading was the opposite side of town. The pickup that we had piled into was obviously stolen and appeared to be quite old when I asked Mark about it he got a bit shirty and declared he was only "borrowing it". After another few minutes in the car I suddenly felt really tired, it seems the adrenaline from the past few days was wearing off. I snuggled into Callie's shoulder and let myself drift off.

**Callie's POV.**

She's hurt. I can tell that she's hurting before she even says anything, I can just tell. She's been sleeping on me since we got to the trailer in the woods. Mark said that Derek, his friend owned the trailer and we would be undisturbed. It was quite a small space for five adults to be staying in. I really hope we won't have to stay here for too long, I don't know if I could stand being so close to Mark and this new guy, Alex. Right now though all I want to do is make sure Arizona's safe. Right now I'm not so sure I managed that.

She shifts in her sleep unconsciously moving closer to me. I could've lost her, I should be protecting her and I couldn't. I mean, we've only been together for a short period of time but I know I want her in my life for as long as I can imagine. I need to ask her if I could call her my girlfriend, it's weird, I told her I love her after only one date (and a meet up at hers involving freaking out over feathers and visibility) but yet I've not asked her to be my girlfriend. I suppose we both just assumed. I look over her beautiful features, her soft blonde hair fair complexion and stroke her face. "Why would someone want to hurt you, love, you're beautiful." I look to her wings, bloody, broken and vandalised like something ugly when in fact they are perfect. "We'll fix you right up. I promise, I'll x-ray these tomorrow." I hated that she's been maimed for this.

She starts to thrash around, obviously having some sort of nightmare. "No, no please, _please _don't do it take me _not her _take me, do it to me _not Calliope!" _She starts to shout trying to wriggle out of my grasp. "Shhhh, Arizona you're alright. Honey, it's just me." She starts to blink, clearly waking up. I start to rub her back as she gradually becomes more aware. "Hi, Callie wha-what happened?"

"You had a nightmare" she looks up at me with wide eyes, nodding slightly.

"It felt real" She moves her arm to wipe the tears out of her eyes. "Calliope, I dreamed they took you instead of me. I couldn't live with myself if they'd hurt you." I move to capture her lips but she lets out a hiss of pain. "Sorry, the shifting hurts." I smile down at her placing my fingertips to my lips, kissing them, and then place them to her own lips. "Callie, do you think you can fix what they've done to me?" She looks at me with obvious concern. "I mean, I have metal bars sticking out of me, what are we gunna do?"

"Don't worry, we'll figure something out." She smiles at me before blinking dozily. "Just go back to sleep, we'll find someone to help tomorrow." She closes her eyes and snuggles her nose into the crook of my neck. "I love you Calliope" she whispers, clearly moments from unconsciousness.

"And I love you too."

The next day Mark drives the two of us to a private clinic on the outskirts of town run by his friend Addison, he told us that she would be discreet in doing the scans that would tell us what was going on with Arizona's body. It was decided that X-rays would be too dangerous as it was obvious that she had metal attached to her bones.

After a nervous wait we find that the scans reveal that she has two breaks in each of her wings, one in the radius and one in the humerus thus rendering them useless unless treated swiftly. We also find that during the "experiment" metal plates were attached to the bones of her forewing, making the: metacarpus; ulnare; and radiale encased in metal. A plan was devised for one of Addison's colleagues to operate on the wings to remove the metal from the affected bones and to potentially recycle this metal to use as exterior splints. The operation was long and I spent most of the night pacing. However eventually she was taken into a recovery room and I quietly waited for her to regain consciousness.

**Arizona's POV.**

I wake up to the feeling of something soft resting on my shoulder, I shift to the side to find dark curls resting on me as it appears Callie fell asleep on the bed beside me. I unconsciously groan which apparently wakes her up as she lifts her head up hazily. "Oh hey you're awake!"

"I could say the same to you" I reply cheekily.

"How do you feel?" She questions brown eyes filled with empathy as she tries to read my thoughts from my face. "Like I've been run over by a truck" this makes her chuckle, gracing me with her perfect smile. "That's good. It means you're healing." She asks me if I want any water which I decline. She then looks at the time, notes its 2 in the morning then declares we should go back to sleep. She holds me tightly as I feel myself drift off.

After a few days they feel I'm strong enough to leave the clinic and stay back at Derek's trailer. On the way cheap pay as you go phones were bought so that I could ring my parents and tell them what happened, I also explained to them where we were staying as we assumed that if we returned to my family home that we would be discovered and returned to the facility.

We were sat on the seat at the porch in relatively comfortable silence listening to the sounds of Mark and Teddy having a heated argument about the football match that they were watching on TV, while Alex and Derek had quite a macho conversation about fishing which then turned to a conversation about cars. It made me glad that I wasn't a man; they seemed passionate about such mundane things. Callie suddenly turned to me with what looked like trepidation in her eyes. "Arizona, can I ask you something?" I look at her and nod, silently asking her to continue. "Would you be my girlfriend?"

I smile at her; she stares at me unblinkingly obviously nervous. I pull her in for a kiss that we melt into lips parting and tongues dancing. "I kinda thought I already was?" We both giggle at that, it was a nice moment of quiet after what had happened.


	12. Chapter 12

Sooooo

I had written another chapter after being holiday

but my computer's just broken.

I've borrowed a friends laptop and I'm attempting a rewrite, I just wanted to give a headsup

sorry


	13. Chapter 13

I've been annoying her, I know it. She's not exactly hiding that fact. But I just don't want anything happening to her. I mean I couldn't protect her once and I'm supposed to be her fricking girlfriend. She's still healing, it's been three months and she's still yet to use those gorgeously sculpted wings of hers. However today is the day the pins came out, I know she couldn't wait but in truth I couldn't either. I really don't think there's anything more beautiful than Arizona Robbins in full flight, she'd freak out if I told her but I love seeing her like that, so determined and calm, occasionally cute when she lands on her butt but sexy as hell when she's got it right.

And then some scientists decided to experiment on her because she's the most obvious of us all. I hate it, I really do. Now there are new people coming in, we see them loaded into the monstrous trucks that took her away from me. Hulking great machines with inbuilt cages as if they were exhibits at a zoo. She's more than that; she's too much for that. Recently we'd been spending as much time as we could together. This, admittedly, wasn't very much. It turned out that there's quite a large gathering of mutants in these woods. Derek's trailer is one of many hidden within the woods, he's acted as an enabler for these people and at some point tomorrow there is to be a gathering. We need to decide whether collectively we can challenge the facility. Despite her protests I refuse to let Arizona take any part in this should it be the outcome, I'm fairly sure she'll be too weak to go.

Plus I can't face her being hurt again. I won't face it.

I hold my breath as I start to see her eyes fluttering open, she smiles at me softly and I feel the constant butterflies remerge after lying dormant during her slumber.

**Arizona**

I'm SO glad to be out of the bandages, those itchy uncomfortable things. Callie's been having nightmares. I hear her while she sleeps; she keeps calling out my name before gradually getting louder. I'm aware that this trailer isn't large enough for the others not to hear her but thankfully they've left it alone. After the fourth night in a row of being awoken by her thrashing about I decide to try to intervene.

"Callie, honey... it's me wake up babe" I get no response, other than a flailing arm hitting my shoulder with a heavy thud. "Calliope Torres **WAKE UP!**" Her eyes flutter open and I can hear a large intake of breathe. "Whu-what... What's up?" The confusion on her face is adorable, but I'm well aware she'll need comforting so I slide myself behind her holding her midsection close to my chest. "You were having a nightmare again."

"N-no I wasn't" I snort at that, squeezing her slightly.

"You were Calliope, I know you remember?" I kiss her neck, feeling her relax slightly as I run my fingertips up and down her arms. "What was it about?"

"I... I, Look its not important. Can we just go back to sleep?"

"Not until you tell me what that dream was about." She looks back to glare at me but I just hold her stare. "Fine, it was about you."

"I gathered that."

"About, what they did to you... you, you. Ari-Arizona you died" She descends into tears before I could respond. "In the dream you **die**, every time. OK?!" Her sobbing gets worse until I turn her round in my arms and she buries her face into the crevice between my neck and shoulders. "Shhhh, I'm here and I'm not going anywhere ok?" I kiss her on the head and stroke her back. "Calliope, what's wrong. What's been upsetting you the most about what happened?"

"I couldn't stop them. I wanted to. But I couldn't and now look what's happened. If the pins didn't take you might never fly again." I'm somewhat relieved that the sobbing has subsided to just the occasional sniffle. "Callie, no one could do anything. You did as much as you could **and **it was you who got me out of there. Please, please don't beat yourself up about this." I cup her cheek as I softly kiss her. "But-"

"No buts, this is the governments fault, not yours. Now it's time for bed." She leans down into my chest and I hold her close to me. "Nothing's going to happen to me Callie, I promise." Eventually I hear her breathing even out before I let myself join her in sleep.

We'd been having meetings with the others that live in the woods. They're mutants like us; it's nice to know we aren't alone. It turns out that there were seven new comers that Derek had been harbouring, two being the Grey sisters, Meredith and Lexie, with grey complexions and the same gift of turning the things the touched into stone. It turns out that Meredith has been dating Derek for quite a while with Lexie being (shockingly) Marks girlfriend in turn. I didn't see how this mouse of a woman would be able to tame the womaniser I used to know. However after watching the two of them together and how she was clearly the yin to his yang I'm happy for them. There's also Cristina Yang, with her ability to smell a drop of blood from 10 miles and the power to stop or restart a heart however she wished. Her boyfriend is a tall, quiet man who seems nice enough; his name is Owen with his power of flames matching his orange hair. Moving to April Kepner, with her shrill being heard for a five mile radius and the ability of deafening anyone within the vicinity. She was small and kinda annoying but she's actually quite nice. Richard Webber was an older gentleman who had the opportunity to a window into the future or the past; having visions of an area in time parallel to date in which we were present the year would be what changes. Finally a woman known as Bailey finished our clan, she had the power of knowledge, with the ability of knowing the words ready to leave your mouth. It was quite unnerving.

They're nice enough people and I look forward to meeting them again however the only one I wished to be with at the time was and is Calliope. After the days meetings we make our excuses and find ourselves in the bedroom. "They're nice." She says inanely while getting undressed.

"Yeah, Kepner's a bit squawky but I really like Lexie." I turn around from my position in front of the carbonate to find her staring at me with a glazed look on her face. "What?"

"Nothing, you're just…. Beautiful, god you're beautiful" she comes over to kiss me, forcefully pushing me to the top of the carbonate counter my legs wrapping themselves around her waist. My right hand finds her cheek, my index finger stroking down the curve of her ear. She shudders like I knew she would and moves her lips from mine to kiss down my neck and throat. The moan from my lips is shocking even to me while my legs start to part further on their own accord. Her lips have met my pink bra that I had been aiming towards discarding; she removes it from me and suckles on my left nipple while my fingers massage her scalp. She's kneeling before me now smiling up at me before latching on again. My back arches as I stifle another series of moans, she takes in as much of my breast as she could manage before releasing it with a pop and moving on to pay attention to the other. She starts to flicker, something I hadn't seen in a while, before long the only senses I can use to detect her is the feel of her body and the heavy breathing coming from her lips. I want to see her beautiful face however … "I want you with me Calliope." Is all I could breathily whisper immediately she flickers back into my view. Her gorgeous chocolate eyes looking up at me as she licks a path from the valley between my breasts to my navel. I can feel my eyes rolling to the back of my head as she nibbles around my belly button already acutely aware of how much of a "spot" that is for me. I'm almost panting as she licks, nibbles and kisses my lower abdomen. Before, finally reaching the hem of my panties. I know she can smell me, she breathes in deeply closing her eyes for a second before ever so quietly letting out a moan. "You're so wet Arizona." She blinks up at me smiling knowingly as she takes the hem of my panties in her teeth. _She's not… she wouldn't… oh god that's so hot. _Teeth moved down a creamy leg to pull my panties down a thigh before she used her hands to fully disrobe me. She then resumed her kissing, nibbling and occasionally sucking from my knee up to where I needed her most. With one lick I knew I wouldn't last too long the nerve endings from my toes up to the backs of my eyes set on fire as my body twitched rhythmically to her licking. Suddenly she thrust her middle finger into me, before carefully adding her index. "That ok?" She briefly looked up with such devotion in her eyes. "Mmmmh Ca-Call…urgh" she giggled at my inability to form words before lowering her lips to my clit again, taking it into her mouth completely before sucking hard on it.

My hips were meeting her thrusts now while my left hand reaches to gently coerce her closer to me centre while my right reaches behind me to give me support. "I'm gunna come Callie… Callie I'm gunna…. Come. Oh god, CALLIOPE!"

As my body starts to twitch and shudder as my orgasm approaches with the speed of a high speed train my unrestrained wings shudder and flap hitting Callie squarely on the side of the head. "Oww." She pulls out of me causing me to jump slightly. "Shit, I'm sorry Callie." She shakes her head smiling at me. "Don't be, it was an accident." She takes my hand and I note that although I may be naked she in fact, is not. "Now, let me take you to bed and I can repay the favour." I drag her with me before pushing her on the bed, topping her. Biting on her earlobe I tell her that "I intend to be doing this all night. I hope that ortho strength can take it." At her diluted pupils I take it as a yes.

I kiss her passionately causing an almost animalistic groan to emerge from her while I slip my leg between hers and she starts to grind on my thigh. Good god she's wet. "Did you like what you see?" I ask her. She's too far gone to respond with words, her mouth hanging open and her eyes squeezed closed. Thighs clamped hard on my own and rubbing herself up and down upon me. A distinctive shudder tells me she's close and I smoothly get my hand between my thigh and her centre furiously rubbing her clit. Her eyes open as her mouth hangs wide silently screaming before, again moaning loudly before her breathing catches and she violently shakes.

Not wanting her pleasure to end I spread her as far as I can before spreading myself above her, pausing for permission which she grants. Grunting as I lower myself our engorged buds make contact as I find my face burrowing between her neck and shoulders. I'm surrounded by Callie as our hips move together as one. Gently at first before becoming more desperate as our breathing becomes rigid. Her right hand has found my as gently squeezing and stroking it while her left is on the hairs of the back of my neck playing. "I'm so close Callie I need more…"

She seems to be clinging on, holding herself back for me but the breathy whispered "I love you" pushes me over the edge causing me to thrust almost painfully onto her and us both to scream out.

After the orgasm releases my body I scoop her up to spoon her stated body. "I love you too" I say kissing her neck.

"HAVE THE LOVE BUNNIES STOPPED YET?!" We hear being shouted from outside the trailer.

"ONLY JUST." Came the reply. We chuckle as we start to drift off.


	14. Chapter 14

**Authors note: I'm gunna apologise for being so terrible at updating recently, I've been busy then I had an enormous bout of writers block.**

**I'm unsure as to how I should reach the end point of this story, I know where I want these guys to be but I don't know how to get them there.**

**So I've written this chapter. I'm again unsure to it but I thought it was quite sweet so here it is. I hope most of you enjoy it :)**

I hate running. I hate running so much it physically hurts me. And yet here I am running, with her and everyone else every day. Because Derek thinks it's a good idea for us to be training in order to successfully find a way to enter the facility and stop whatever it is that they are doing in there. Oh and I. HATE. RUNNING.

Arizona on the other hand loves it. She generally runs beside me, sprinting ahead when it's the home straight. She likes to believe it's encouraging, which it is, mostly but really I just enjoy seeing her sweat. It's sexy.

I on the other hand look like a beached whale. And I hate running.

**Arizona**

She runs for me. I can see her puffing and panting trying so hard to keep up with us. I know how much she hates it but she tries, I can see her trying. She just never really ran before now and some of us here did. Calliope's strong but she's no Usain Bolt.

Derek's started some far-fetched idea of us training like some sort of crime fighting team. I look over to the others with us, some reluctantly some with more enthusiasm. Bailey was grumbling to herself; however the "twisted sisters" as Cristina and Mer decided to call themselves appeared to be quite jovial. If I'm honest I'd rather be flying than running but both Callie and Derek insist I need to be able to do both, I'm just quite happy that my dad's marine training exercises came in handy to me. I'm used to ten mile sprint at 0500 hours so a three mile jog at eleven in the morning is nothing really.

Just don't tell Calliope that.

So many people are being taken to the facility; trucks full of them are loaded. I'm nervous for what's going to happen once Derek decides we should implement his plan. He's been sending some of the others as surveillance for the past month, he thinks there's a weakness in the operations during a switchover of the guards with the trucks, there's a twenty second window. He thinks that'll be our chance to take out the guards and replace them. There are no female guards meaning that those replacing the guards will have to find a way to let the ladies of our group in. Mark came home a few weeks in after finding another "different" person in the woods, Jackson Avery from one of the local hospitals. After waking up one day with a pair of horns sprouting from his forehead.

I feel a sense of kinship with him, waking up with random animal parts coming from you. He's still getting used to it. Mark keeps telling him to run into things to see if he can break through. So far he's felled a few trees and ran through a concrete wall. It's lead to concussion on more than one occasion.

I however haven't yet to fly since the incident. It's starting to get me down, everyone else (including Teddy) can control their powers yet I'm still this shaking wreck whenever I try to fly. I need to crack this, yet every time I try I just hurtle upwards before crashing. After running there is training to try to hone in our talents. This usually involves Teddy, Calliope and I in a field behind the trailer attempting to get me into the air. So far nothing has worked, we've tried having me run and then jump of a slight hill, Callie throwing me into the air (which although I imagine was quite funny to watch, hurt like a bitch when I hit the ground)and just from a standing start. I've been checked over by one of the new comers (apparently there's a vet in town) medically I'm healthy enough to fly, I just can't do it.

Today was just like any other day in recent memory. We traipsed up to the fields thankful for the cover that the surrounding woods gave us. I spent a good hour attempting to gain some sort of up thrust. Frustrated after once again crashing to the ground I sit on the floor with my head in my hands. Callie comes over putting her arm around my shoulders she kisses behind my ear. "What's up chuck?" I look up to her with tears threatening to escape from my eyes.

"I can't do it Calliope. I thought I'd be able to by now but it's just not happening." She looks at me with empathetic eyes before tightening the hold she has on me. "Arizona what do you think about when you're up there?"

"That it was these that got me into this mess, that it is these dammed things that got Erica on my case, ejected from the home I lived in and then taken to the facility. I haven't seen my mom since I was taken there!" Apparently I'd been holding onto anger I didn't realise I even had.

"Oookay, and what do you think about when you look at me?" She asks smiling at me.

"What?"

"Just answer the question" I sigh deeply before providing her with an answer, despite myself I start to smile. "All those negative things drift away; I think that despite what's happened if it wasn't for these things I may not have you. We may not have gone through this together. And and and and and, I love you." I stutter the last bit out as I feel a wave of emotion overtake me.

"I love you too." She plants a firm kiss on my lips abruptly before just as abruptly pulling away to look into my eyes. "Now, when you're up there you need to think of me, not of everything else. Just of me and those happy feelings you get, otherwise flying will just have negative connotations to you. And it'll never work." She looks at me nodding. "Please, just try it, see what happens."

Teddy starts jogging towards us, obviously having given us a moment but quickly waning in patience. "You gunna have another go?" I turn to her and nod smiling slightly.

"Yeah, I am" I whisper to Callie. "Let's give it a go." She kisses my head before grabbing my hand and pulling me up with her as she stands.

_Right let's have a go. _I set off across the field as fast as my legs can carry me, I open my wings up extending them as far as possible. With a deep breath and thoughts of Callie flooding my mind I flap my wings downward with as much force as I can muster. I'm immediately thrown twenty feet up into the air. Feeling myself dropping back to earth I spread the wings out and flap again, I'd gotten this far on previous attempts. This causes me to rise once again preventing an immediate crash. I then spread the wings out in an attempt to allow air to collect below my wings and for me to maintain buoyancy within the air. I cross my fingers hoping that _this time _will be the time it happens.

To my surprise it is. I smile to myself as I swoop across the trees towards the trailer. "That's it Arizona! You're doing it Babe, I KNEW you would. You're doing great Babe." I can hear Callie shriek after me as both she and Teddy peg it to try to keep up with me.

I see the trailer coming up quickly ahead of me. The only question is how being how I would stop. _Shit_. I start to drift downwards towards the trailer at high speed. "Nooo"

"Oh no Baby nooo!" I hear Callie's footsteps getting quicker as I near the caravan. Finally my brain engages and I flap my wings once again, allowing me to narrowly miss the trailer and instead fly straight into the branches of a nearby tree. With a loud CRASH I find myself wedged between two large branches. "Ooowwww." I shift slightly and find myself hitting the ground with a thud.

Callie was stood over in seconds. However she was laughing. "You shoulda seen that, oh Arizona you were doing so well…. Bu-but then." She descends into laughter after that.

That is when she finds my hand slapping her shoulder. Hard. "That hurt, shut up."

"Ouch" she whined, "what was that for?"

"Laughing at me, my ego is crushed." I pull a tongue at her raised eyebrow.

"Yeah well, my shoulder is now." She says rubbing her bruised shoulder.

"Boo hoo, should I kiss it better?"

"Yeah." She winks at me.

"Tough." I say before running to the trailer in a fit of giggles, she blinks at me confused before bursting off after me. It was small things like this that made me love her more.


	15. Chapter 15

"I believe I can fly." I stand with the boom box held aloft watching Arizona swoop around. She'd finally got it. After all the trying, the frustration and the occasional arm slap (after viscous teasing from either myself or Teddy) Arizona could fly. After watching her twist and turn up and down the clearing Teddy had given me the idea to play 's anthem. We weren't sure how well the joke had been taken.

That was until a rather large pile of berries landed on both of our heads. "Make fun of me again and I'll swap this for a brick." The blonde head of my girlfriend turned away from us as she past, looking where she was going was something she had quickly worked out as being advantageous after an encounter with a low hanging branch earlier in the week. As cute as that threat may seem I know full well the seriousness behind it, some would suggest I was in an abusive relationship from the amount of slaps I've gained recently. However the amount of times she kisses everything better would cause me to believe differently. She gracefully (ish) lands a little further into the clearing and walks over to Teddy and me. "Derek said there's yet another meeting today?" The taller of the two blondes asks us. "Yeah, I think he's finally thought of a plan." Arizona rolled her eyes.

"About time if you ask me, I'm fed up with waiting for him to come up with something." They both nod in agreement.

"What do you think it'll be?" Teddy looks at me at this query.

"I think we'll have to wait and see however from what I've overheard Mark saying it's actually pretty good." We start making our way back to the trailer Arizona taking my hand in hers, Teddy making a force field around us as it starts to rain; the grin on her face is almost comical she's so happy to have discovered her own gift. "This will _never _get old." She declares to our general direction. We both chuckle then Arizona leans in on her tip toes to plant a kiss on my cheek. "The berries didn't hurt your head did they?" She asks with concern written on her face.

"Nah, it was funny." She smiles up at me before squeezing my hand.

"Good, 'cos if I'm honest the song _was _funny." She rolled her eyes as Teddy makes a guffawing noise. "Good cos the genius who thought of that was ME, not Callie but ME." She points to herself before dashing towards the trailer cackling as the force field she created disappears in her wake. "THEADORA!" Arizona squawks as she rushes after her "NOT funny." Apparently I've been deemed less important than the drying of feathers. "Calliope HURRY UP!"

I ran towards my blonde bombshell, throwing myself into a hug she squeals before we both crash down. "Not funny Calliope. Not funny _at all." _The smile on her face contradicts her words as she leans up for a kiss. "Could you possibly, maybe, get off me?" Her blue eyes are wide and I can tell that some shifting has caused pressure on a joint or something equally uncomfortable. I slowly remove my weight from her pulling her up flush to me. "Arizona?"

"Mmmmmh?"

"I _really _like you" I say jokingly.

"Oh you _like _me do you?" She grins at me. As I nod at her she brushes her fingers across my bangs. "Only like?" She whispers into my ear before suckling on my earlobe releasing it with a pop as I let out a moan. "No, no that was a lie. I kinda, maybe. _Might, _potentially _Love _you." I say with a grin, we'd been through the "I love you's" before but it was nice to draw it out now and again. She nods up at me before crashing her mouth onto mine in a fairly non PG like fashion. "That's good because Calliope, I love you too."

Neither one of us noticed the grey haired figure stood sniggering at us, nor his blonde haired accomplice who had devised a trick of having Mark make water droplets collect in the area around a force field that teddy created, essentially creating a bucket of water.

A bucket of water that landed on our heads. In a load SPLOOSH. "What the fuck Mark?" We turn around to the sounds of barely contained laughter. "Teds here said you guys were in need of a cold shower or you'd be jumpin' each other…. I thought I'd help out." I can see an icy glare coming from Arizona before she swiftly swipes the back of his head. "You're a Neanderthal." She grabs my hand before dragging us both to the trailer. All the while flipping the bird to our two deranged friends. Once inside the room that Derek has kindly let us share I realise just how cold the water must have been for her as she's shivering quite ferociously. Engulfing her in a hug I ask her if she's ok. "Yeah babe, I just think the flying takes it out of me." Wrapping her up in the warmest clothing I possess, my sweatshirt from college, joggers and my fleecy blanket for the winter. The shivering dies down and I could see her eyes starting to droop. Although I know that we have to go to Derek's meeting in an hour I lower her to the bed. "Have a nap babe; I'll wake you up when it's time to see everyone." She sleepily nods at me before snuggling into the duvet. She's asleep in seconds.

**Arizona**

I'm awoken with a kiss on my ear, jawline and then finally on the mouth. It's not often Callie does that but it's lovely when she does. "You have to get up now babe, everyone's waiting for us." She takes my hand, kissing my knuckles before we both make our way to the group of people sat around a campfire. "Hope you're ok Blondie, we didn't mean to make you ill." Mark says, Callie's clearly had a word with him but it's not like he did anything intentionally, I wave off his almost apology stating I was just tired anyway. Finally Derek starts telling us the outline of his plan.

He states that anyone who can be discretely entered into the facility as employees are to attempt to gain employment within the building, in this case himself, Cristina, April, Richard and Bailey would be those gaining employment. Both Teddy and Mark had already been into the facility. The Grey sisters had grey complexions, Alex had the spines; Owen was often engulfed in flames and finally Jackson had horns so due to the obviousness of our "talents" it was deemed we would be working from the outside. There would be secret meetings every other weekend to find the weakest part of the building and the areas in which they held the "prisoners" we would find the route from the break in point to the prisoners and the best way out. Those on the outside would break in and those on the inside would prevent the guards from stopping the break in. It was the best plan that anyone had come up with. Most of us agreed it would work, Mark had quite a few questions about it but eventually we all decided that operation AWESOME was a go. "How the hell did you get to name the operation Blondie we will _never _know?"

"Yeah Roller Skate Girl awesome…. _Really?" _Christina and Mark clearly lacked their sense of humour today.

"Yes, really because we are _awesome, _this plan is _awesome _and we will be team _awesome _when this is pulled off." I gave them a shit eating grin as they grumble and concede to my amazing victory. "Plus where is the fun in calling it operation 235 or whatever the heck Derek would suggest?"

"You're so cute babe, let's go" Callie hugs me from behind before taking me by the hand. "I have a hot date with the girl with the dimples; do you happen to know where I might find her?" I smile before giving her a kiss. "A hot date you say?"

"It's a surprise… Just go and get ready, I want you to put on something nice."

"I always look nice." I pull a tongue at her while she raises an eyebrow, daring me to carry on the teasing. "Ok, how about something sexy?"

"Now that I can do." And with that she pushes me towards our room and with a small pat on the toosh I'm left alone in front of my wardrobe with a vague idea of what to wear at best.


	16. Chapter 16

**Fluffy fluff fluff fluff. Tonight's episode will no doubt kill me so here's this (hurrah)**

Good god _that dress. _That dress will be the death of me. She chose blue, I was unsure as to which of the blue or the red dresses she would go for. Those being the most stunning of the dresses she owns. With its scooping neckline, its open back (thankfully for those feathered appendages) and its form fitting frame. _That dress_ shall take me to my grave. And of course by _dress_ I really mean that _Arizona _will be the death of me. If based on this one glance of her I feel that this date shall go well.

I hadn't told her my plans because I wanted it to be a surprise, we'd been here for a few months now and I'd never been happier so I wanted to tell her. I know what I want to ask her, I'm just not too sure if she'll think it's too soon. I'd turned to Mark for advice; he's known Arizona and Teddy the longest. He'd know how she'd feel about a ring on a very specific finger. He'd told me about Arizona's love of snow and the cold weather long ago, hell he'd even brought himself along to help me pick the ring.

All that was left to do was to ask her. Looking at her right now, taking my breath away with such ease… made it all the more daunting.

**Arizona**

She keeps glancing at me with those big brown eyes. I know I look good in this dress but my god does Callie seem to love this. In fact she seems pretty nervous.

Nerves, now that is something I understand. I've spent the past few days continuously feeling nervous. You see there was something very special in my handbag, I was planning on doing this last night but then things happened and I lost my nerve. Teddy's been helping me out but there's only so much she can do y'know. She takes my hand and guides me out of the trailer the smile on her face lighting up my world as I give her hand a squeeze. "Where are we going?" I ask her.

"All in good time m'lady." She grins at me, raising our clasped hands to her lips kissing the back of my hand. She leads us the short distance into the woods far further than the area that I was acquainted with. I knew that other "mutants" lived here, they were those that Derek and Mark had helped from way back when, they stayed to themselves and used the woods as sustenance hunting, trapping and scavenging. We'd had sightings of them in the past, they had particularly physical differences; much like Alex, Jackson and myself. They were friendly with Derek and Mark however they never failed to give me the heebie jeebies. "Calliope, where _are _we going I'm kinda scared." She looked down at me before giving me a quick kiss. "Don't worry, we're almost there." She smiles at me whilst we get to a clearing. There was an unnatural glow coming from within the gap in the trees and as we got closer I realise that it is due to several tens, if not a hundred candles scattered around the clearing. There is also a lake which, despite the warm weather appears frozen over. "Arizona, have you ever gone ice skating?" I shake my head as we both walk towards a blanket that's been left adjacent to the lake. On it are two pairs of ice skates in our corresponding sizes. "Well then lovely, we're going to have a go at it. Is that ok?" _Okay? My god this idea is perfect._ Instead I just nod at her with the biggest grin I could muster.

**Callie**

Thank god for Owen, Mark and his friend Barney, whose power is the ability to turn things to ice. I'd asked Owen and Mark to set up this space after they took me on a walk around the woods early one day while Arizona was sleeping. I thought this space was so beautiful. They agreed to help after I told Mark what it was that I was planning to do. Owen said he'd help light the candles (and later a fire which will happen while Arizona and I are skating) while Barney eventually agreed to freeze the lake. Barney lived out in the woods as his girlfriend, one of the mutants that had the resemblance of a snake.

I watch as Arizona laces up her boots (they were pink, of course) and attempts to balance on the metal rails. She was adorable, for someone who often wears wheelie sneakers, which I have photographic evidence of she sure was bad at balancing on them. Often wobbling and needing to grab my hand. It was good that I'd been skating for a while I liked being her "protector". A porcelain hand entwines itself within my own. "Calliope, this is beautiful but I'm _so _bad at this." I chuckle as I pull her in for a kiss. We set off from the side of the lake, her arms and wings are out to help balance her yet she still manages to fall. Hard.

This was set to be a long night.

**Arizona.**

It's surprising how much that hurt yet once Callie manages to drag me to my wobbly feet it's all better with the look in her eyes. All I want to do is ask her the question burning my insides but the courage I so desperately need appears to have dwindled to nothing. So instead I cling to her whilst flailing. I really am bad at this.

After a short while we ascertain that I can manage to skate round the lake in an even circle, however anything else simply lands me on the ground. "Shall we head back to our things?" She asks me the gentle concern she's shown throughout this endeavour makes my heart swell. I nod and kiss her shoulder as she directs us back to the blanket where our things are. It's then that I notice the roaring fire that had appeared close to where we would be sitting. "Calliope… how? What? Who? What strings did you have to pull here?"

"No strings, we just have really good friends." I nod at that before capturing her lips in a passionate kiss pushing her down so that she was lying against the blankets and I atop her. I release her lips when breathing becomes an issue and nuzzle my nose into her neck. "I have something to ask you…" She begins however she drifts off slightly the apparent apprehension of before coming back to her voice now. "I have something to ask you too Calliope, what is it you want to ask me?" I remove my head from her chest to look up at her. I watch as she clears her throat, her eyes in the candle light reflecting both the flickering orange and the contrasting darkness. In this moment she is the most beautiful I have ever seen. I cup her cheek as I give her a light peck on her lips, travelling to her ear I whisper "it's ok Callie, whatever you have to ask me… it'll be ok." I feel her nodding as she inhales and exhales deeply before speaking. "I had this speech in my head of what I wanted to say to you about how I feel complete when I'm simply around you, let alone when you look at me or when we're as close as this. I feel like my heart could explode and implode at the same time. I love you and I want this to be something that carries on forever Arizona, I want to be with you until the day I day old and wrinkly. I was going to do this right and ask your father for permission to do this, because you deserve everything to be perfect. But I don't think I could find the right words to fully express how I feel about you and I simply couldn't wait for him to agree to this. So…" She takes a breath and as I look on questioningly she reaches underneath a corner of one of the blankets she takes out a velvet box. _Oh my god. _"Arizona Robbins… Will you marry me?"

I start laughing. I am sat there on the blanket hysterically laughing to the point in which I cannot breathe while Callie looks on, hurt and confused. "Is that a _no_ then…..?" The lowering of her hands and the tears budding in the corners of her eyes smacks me back to my senses. "NO Calliope, Callie…. Of _course _I want to marry you **YES!**" I grab her by her ears and launch myself on to her pushing her back once again. Shaking she picks up the ring, which is just as gorgeous as anything she would pick with a simple design of three diamonds mounted on a white gold ring, the middle of which being larger than the other two. "Then why were you laughing? And what was your question?" I kiss the tears that had started to stream down her cheeks.

"Calliope, I was about to ask you the same question."

"What?" Reaching for my handbag I pull out the red box that belonged to the woman who held my heart. "Calliope Torres will you do the honour of becoming my wife?" I held the box open for her revealing the ring inside.

It was her turn to convulse with laughter.

"Well I can't say no now can I?"


	17. Chapter 17

It'd been a week since we'd gotten engaged, for the first day we tried valiantly to conceal our news however Mark is like a sniffer dog and spotted Callie's ring within three hours. It was a downward spiral after that and I found myself cornered by Teddy, Addison and April demanding answers while gushing violently. If I'm honest I had wanted things to be a little private between the two of us. It's hard having time together in an environment so entwined with others; however the love we received from our friends was uplifting.

However none of that mattered at the moment because _right now_ project awesome making progress. It had been fairly simply for Derek to gain employment at the facility, he was a computer scientist and from what information he had been coming back with it was obvious that the staff there were clearly lacking in that department. Bailey found a job in some sort of staff liaison position; Christina became a manager of one of the experiments being run on a mutant. The information she was giving and the solemnness of her voice made it obvious that whatever that person was going through was particularly sinister. So far she'd managed to sabotage several of the implements used putting off the inevitable. However it was becoming increasingly obvious that "Nightcrawler" was not going to be long for this world. Richard had somehow managed to get himself into security. This was a big help, he'd worked out a way to increase the gap in time between the switching over of the guards at the truck. He'd managed to increase the time by another twenty seconds, leaving forty seconds switchover time as they'd decided to give him the authority of driving the van on his own. And finally April had found herself working within the sick bay as apparently our incident wasn't the only issue the guards were having, many had been treated for burns as there was a mutant who had the ability to heat up anything metal within a ten metre radius. Owen was particularly pleased about that one.

So far we'd worked out that there was a corridor on the south side of the compound that had a particularly weak plasterboard wall. This was in comparison to the double layered walls of the other sides of the compound and would therefore be our point of attack. Jackson and Owen were coming up with plans on how to create a hole in the outer layer; Alex was considering how to create a rudimentary ladder using his spines. Things were moving quickly and everyone was stressed. It had led to some minor spats between myself and Callie.

Currently she wasn't talking to me.

I'd gone to find Teddy last night to have a catch up, at some point during the night Mark had joined us and the three of us had started reminiscing. It has been fun just talking like old times in school, messing around, laughing and joking. I'd gotten so wrapped up in what was going on that I had failed to look at my phone for most of the night. When I did check, not only was my phone violently telling me to connect my charger, I also had a miscall and three texts from Callie asking me to get in touch. Her parents had tried to contact her it seemed and she wanted some comfort only I could give. When I phoned back she didn't pick up and once I got to our room she was giving me the definite cold shoulder. I was trying but I couldn't thaw it.

**Callie's pov.**

I wasn't even annoyed anymore; she was just so cute trying so hard to get back into my good graces it was an opportunity I couldn't resist. What with the breakfast premade for me once I woke up, the endless supply of made coffee and the slight whimper she released once I moved away from her last night. It had upset me when she wasn't there for me; I knew she'd be at Teddy's trailer she'd told me where she was going but after my father tried to ring me I needed her calming influence over me. When she didn't pick up I had tried going for a walk, joining in the heavy debate Owen and Derek were having over which baseball team was the best out of the Yankies and the Red Sox. And finally I had given up and gone to bed. Then she came in clearly drunk apologising over and over again. I was frustrated and didn't want her around. But then she started crying. It took everything in me to not turn around and hold her. But no, I was too pissed off.

And now here I was in the "training room" which essentially was a section of cordoned off field attempting to figure out what it was that had annoyed me in the first place. That was until a very distinctive shadow moved across the ground towards me before two deceptively strong hands grabbed me by the waist and suddenly with two elegant flaps of her wings I was hurtled into the air with my blonde beauty. "Urgh Arizona put me _down_!" I start to wriggle, however her grip gets tighter, she starts to hush me murmuring that I shouldn't do that. I look down and realise why, we are _clearly_ well above the canopy quickly gaining altitude as we climbed towards the hilltops above the town the trailer quickly becoming a dot in the distance. "Not far now" is all I'm rewarded with after a few more minutes of her slowly taking us to our mysterious destination.

Suddenly the canopy clears and we're descending into a park. "This is my favourite place to go when I need to think, it's usually empty around now". My head had been nuzzled against her neck, all I can do is nod I feel a kiss on my forehead and a sigh. She gently places me down on the ground, landing behind me. "When did you get so strong?"

"Derek's had me picking people up like this as part of training; I wanted to surprise you for a while." I had noticed her arms becoming more toned but I'd been too busy appreciating them to ask about it. She starts walking towards a park bench I follow in her wake. "Arizona…"

"You get a good view from this bench" she turns round giving me a dazzling grin patting down on the bench as she sits gesturing for me to sit also. I try to scowl, I try to sulk, and hell I try to give her the stink eye. But _right now_ she's adorkable and I cannot believe she's mine which is why I find myself smiling back at her. "Do you now?"

"Mmmhmmm, Callie?"

"Yeah?"

"I'm sorry about everything, I realise things have been hard recently and, urgh well I'm sorry." Those blue eyes cast themselves at the floor, I can see them starting to well up and she takes a gulp of a breath. "I didn't mean to miss those calls, you know that? I should be there for you and I wasn't. I'm supposed to be a good man in a storm and I'm not." By now she is shaking as the crying starts, it's a little perplexing as to what has started this. "Honey, honey look at me." I plead for the blue orbs I so love to see to rise to my level. "Babe, please tell me what brought this on." Finally they make contact with my own. "I-I miss my family but I know that they're there for me when I need them andIhatethatyoudon'thavethatbutIwasn'tthereforyouw henyouneededmeandIwishIwasthere." She says in one breath. "Pardon?" She's flushed now and blinks rapidly.

"I said, I hate that you don't have a family to fall back on but I have and I feel awful for not being there for you when you needed me. And you know that if you needed to talk to them my parents would be happy to but I realise it's not the same." At some point I had started crying.

"I can't ask that Arizona."

"You can and you should, you're my family now and that makes you theirs by extension. Do you know what your family wanted to talk to you about?" I didn't, I actually had no idea as I'd only received voicemail messages from them asking for me to ring them back. "It's not as simple as ringing them Arizona, they disowned me for who I love. How the _hell _can I expect them to decide to accept me when I'm a friggin' _mutant!_" I spat the last bit out causing her to flinch and I started flickering wildly. "Calliope…"

"What?"

"I'm a _mutant_ too" Her eyes well up and she gets up from the bench.

"Arizona… hey, wait for me… ARIZONA."

"What? You are the one who used it as a reason for hate, so hell I mean why wouldn't people hate us, why shouldn't we get rounded up like pigs? Fuck Callie, I have fucking _wings _sticking out of me and you expect me to be okay with that? I hate this it's ruined our lives, when can go back to being doctors again. We're learning how to become some sort or covert team and yet most of us have no real clue what we're doing. I want to be there for you but I'm already conscious about this you have to know that too." Her wings are outstretched and twitching wildly and tears are running down her face. I pull her close to me and feel the sobs overtaking her. "I'm not okay with this Calliope, I'm really not okay." Her head is resting against my chest now. "I don't want this; I don't want this life at all."

"Shhhh I know, I know. I shouldn't have said what I said and I'm sorry. Do you know how proud of you I am?" She shakes her head. "You go through it every day; the way you look at yourself has significantly changed. But we're here for you, everyone is. And I know you're going to help me when I do ring my parents, I just…just need them to accept me, and otherwise what would be the point?"

"They'll accept you. Do you want me there when you ring them?" I nod as she looks up at me, she smiles slightly and squeezes my arm. "Urgh, actually I was thinking of ringing them now while we're both here?"

"Okay" I take out my phone, dial my father's mobile number and press the green telephone. After the third ring I hear my father answer the telephone "Hello?"

"Daddy…"


	18. Chapter 18

My mother has cancer. She has three months to live.

It wasn't until the conversation with my father had ended that it had sunk in, Arizona holding me while I cried into the night. The next morning at breakfast I could feel the eyes on my friends who obviously overheard the weeping on me in a sympathetic haze. I went about the next few days numbly, going through the motions. Occasionally Arizona would fly us to that spot in the park for some needed moments of privacy, mostly used by her enveloping me into a hug as I cried into the crook of her neck. She's been wonderful through all this, especially considering she knows near to nothing of my family. On the third day of taking me to the park she finally asks about my parents.

"Babe, you don't have to say anything if it's too hard or anything but what happened with your parents? I mean I realise I'm not exactly close with mine but I ring them once a week yet this is the first you've spoken to or of them." Her blue eyes look to me in cautious question as she smoothly glides her hand into mine squeezing slightly. "Do you remember how I met you?"

The bridge of her nose wrinkles in confusion but I am given a nod of the head in response. "Yes, we were leaving a lecture and I bumped into you causing you to spill your coffee. Why?"

"And you wouldn't stop apologising, or following me all the way to the bathroom as I tried. And failed to remove the stain from my shirt." She chuckles at the memory. "Then you decided to buy me another coffee and added a _ridiculous _amount of sugar. You _will _be getting diabetes babe."

This earns me a complete belly laugh accompanied by those dimples I love so much. "I'm a Robbins, trust me I'm impervious to diabetes. But why is this relevant?" She starts to frown in confusion.

"Because that was the very first day I met you, and yet I still knew just from that that I wanted to be with you. That the clumsy, perky, chatty, ridiculously sweet blonde girl, who managed not only to eat her doughnut but the majority of mine as well when I wasn't looking was the girl for me." She's managed to turn a shade of crimson at my description before sighing and leaning in to place a kiss at the base of my ear.

"I love you" She whispers before sitting straight and looking attentively at me.

"I've never been with a girl before Arizona, you knew that when you met me. It took a hell of a long time for me to come to terms with that. That's why in some cases I feel like we took baby steps but now that I'm with you I feel so happy and we seem to be rushing forward. But my parents, they we just totally unable to understand it. After I met you I went to my friends going on and on about the girl in the blonde braids who puts five sugars in her coffee and eventually this got back to my strictly Catholic parents. The reason I didn't go talk to you for 4 months after that was for the fear of losing my family. They'd told me that should they find that I'd slept with a woman they would cut me out of their lives and leave me to the streets. I couldn't do that Arizona, I just couldn't." I look over to her to see her starting to cry, I hadn't realised the tears streaming down my face also until she reaches to wipe underneath my eyes with her thumb.

"Babe…" She pulls me to her chest kissing my head before pressing her forehead down to my crown. "I'm sorry, I wish I'd known" I shake my head before attempting to carry on with the story.

"Eventually I moved in with my housemate, giving me the freedom to date more privately. However by then I'd pushed you so far away that whenever I tried to talk to you I felt like you wanted to get away." Blue eyes flashed back to mine and she was quickly shaking her head.

"No, **no **Calliope it wasn't that. It was just, you'd had such an impact on me also that after the few times I'd tied to talk to you were rebuffed I couldn't allow myself to hold out any hope that you wanted to be my friend. Let alone date me. I kept looking for you during lectures or in the hospital. Hell, I even did an ortho rotation because I knew it was what you were choosing as a specialty. When it came to becoming a fellow I used to hope you were on shift during an orthopaedic case because I wanted to catch the chance to see you even if it was detached and professionally. But then you kept asking if I wanted a drink or a bite to eat after shift and I didn't know how to take that, I didn't want to hope in fear I'd get too attached and then hurt when you became distant again." I nodded.

"Well after it was clear that you didn't want to meet up out of work I started to go to bars to pick up girls." I feel her shudder underneath me. "Sorry" I whisper, planting a kiss above her heart. She replies by kissing my crown. "I know baby, I know"

"Eventually I hooked up with another blonde, you know Erica? The girl who ratted you to your boss?" Arizona's eyes widen.

"No, Calliope… No? She's an icebitch." I chortle.

"That she is but at the time she was a poor man's version of you and I would take anything if it meant it would remind me of you. Her hair was duller, her eyes less blue. She rarely smiled. But she taught me it was ok to love woman and I'll always remember that. However when it became obvious that I was only with her to stem my need for you I ended it before it got too serious. She was furious blaming you in all of it listing off your personality traits as if you had venom." She's stroking my hair while mumbling incoherently in my direction.

"I came to visit my parents a few days later to find that she'd been there the day before declaring to my parents that "we were in _love_" and that she intended to marry me!" Obviously my parents, particularly my mother didn't warm to that idea and I found myself disowned by my family. My trust fund emptied and the properties I had part ownership to have my name removed on the deeds. I was no longer invited to family functions, the locks to the house changed and the house staff no longer allowed me entry to the property. I am by all accounts an alien in my own home."

"You are no alien Calliope" That name, only her and my father have constantly called me Calliope that fact causes a burning sensation behind my eyes as I try to regain control of my emotions.

"So after that I told my housemate what happened, removed all thoughts of Erica, my parents and the thought that trying to be close to you was wrong from my life **and **asked Teddy where it was you lived. That's when I knocked on your door baring flowers." She smiles at the memory.

"It was sweet my love." I roll my eyes.

"It was stupid, I should've known you'd have been dating somebody, or at least thinking about it."

"We weren't dating; it was just that night… you know?" I shudder, I realise she would've slept with other people before me however I never wish to know about them. The memory of Arizona wrapped in a night gown with an obviously naked brunette peeking over her shoulder while I handed her some slightly wilted flowers with a dramatically dropping smile on my face is one I would like to erase.

"Yeah, I know. You handled the situation very well. And well, I knew I probably should give up." She shakes her head. "Never give up on us Calliope, I won't so neither should you." She says it with enough confidence for me to pause and look her in the eyes. She winks at me causing us both to chuckle. "Well I tried to avoid you, I sat in the back of lectures, I bolted the corridor when I saw you rolling through on those ridiculous shoes-"

"Heelys"

"Whatever, but then one day you popped up in front of me going on and on about calling things wrong and apologising for that girl and how you wanted to take me on a date. If I'm honest I would've agreed to anything you said there and then, but when you stopped talking I realised I hadn't heard any of it I was too busy staring at you. A week later we went on that date then THE NEXT DAY I get a hysterical phone call from Teddy about "birds wings" and "still in her underwear" and here we are. You made me feel right again Arizona, all of you here became my family when I had none." She leans in to kiss me.

"Thank you for telling me all that, what're you going to do now?" I'd told my father I would ring him today, that I would only visit my family if I could bring Arizona along too and that due to the circumstances we would prefer to meet somewhere private, I was going to tell him my decision and where would be best for us to meet as my family would have to travel to get here.

"I want to see them, I really do. But what if they can't accept us, or worse they refuse to accept you due to the wings. I couldn't accept that." I sit up, taking her hand. "I've never loved someone like I love you." She kisses my knuckles.

"Honey, it's your family. You don't want to lose the chance of saying goodbye to her, even if she doesn't see things the way we'd prefer. I'll be here for whatever you need you just have to tell me."

"Would you come with me?" I breathe out. "I realise I've already asked but…" I don't finish my sentence because she's already nodding. "I can't believe my mom has cancer." I look down to our joined hands. "Arizona."

"Mmmhmmm?"

"I want to be like this when we're old and grey, just like this on a bench holding hands while our millions of grandchildren race round us." She smiles back to me, once again kissing my knuckles.

"Me too honey, me too. Although how many children are you intending because I can tell you we'd need to move out this caravan." We both chuckle at that.

**Arizona's POV.**

I wouldn't say that I was nervous about meeting Callie's parent's per say… however as we walked closer and closer to the hotel room that we'd been told they were staying in my nerves suddenly got the better of me. She seems to notice as she grabs my sweating palm "its gunna be alright, they should like you. If not hey, at least we tried" She tries to smile at me but all I can do is blink back in return. I'd managed to hide the wings under a hoody again, although now that I was unaccustomed to it this felt really quite strange. Once we got to the blue door of the hotel room 502. Callie knocked and we waited.

The door was opened by a bald Latino man with bright blue eyes. "Calliope…" His smile fails to reach his eyes as he awkwardly stands by the door. "Hi Daddy"

"And you must be Arizona?" I hadn't realised he was looking at me until his hand is outstretched to mine; I take it in an awkward handshake. "I wish I could say it's a pleasure to meet you but I suppose we'll have to see won't we." Concerned brown eyes flash to me as Callie hisses out a

"Daddy, enough!" in response. Undeterred by the comment he simply asks if he may take our coats. Without thinking I remove the hoody wishing to be unrestrained in the privacy the room ensures. It's only when I hear a light gasp followed by a thud of a body hitting the floor that I realise my introduction to Calliope's terminally ill mother would be when I hovered above her in attempt to rouse her back from the unconsciousness I drove her to all the whilst being watched upon by her grotesquely disapproving father.

The night had started off well then….


End file.
